The NFL Report: Lane Johnson is Calling it a Career + Nick Shook Joins the Show

Do the Eagles still have a clear lane to the playoffs without their Hall of Fame right tackle? Coming up, we have the latest on the stunning news out of Philadelphia. Who, or is it whom, is leading the league in passing? Is it time to give Bryce Young his flowers and his contract extension? And can the Bengals survive without a run game? Are we asking that again? It's coming up next on the NFL Report. And we have new power rankings as well. Nick Shook is here with those. Welcome to another edition of the NFL Report. We're presented by Nationwide.

It is a Tuesday week five edition. My name is Andrew Siciliano. Here is what is news to me. Our latest headlines. Big news. Kind of sort of out of nowhere today, although he was a healthy scratch. Personal reasons on Sunday. Lane Johnson is retiring. The future Hall of Famer, let's just say it that way, the future Hall of Fame right tackle for the Philadelphia Eagles is done after 14 seasons. Six Pro Bowls, two All-Pros, a two-time Super Bowl champion. Lane Johnson decides to hang it up. This with the Eagles about to ship off to London on Friday to play the Jaguars. And this with third-round rookie Markel Bell taking over. Cam Juergens also, oh by the way, is in concussion protocol. And the Eagles lost to the

Rams and the offense looked awful this past Sunday. And yeah, there's that. Nick Shook is with us. So the Eagles are 2-2. Obviously, they think they're going to the playoffs. They'd like to play for a Super Bowl. But now no Lane Johnson. Does this just end their chance for a quick offensive turnaround?

It's going to make it a lot more challenging, I think, for this Eagles offense. And it starts up front, not just with the loss of Lane Johnson, but also... You have multiple contributors who are not playing right now. It hasn't been an offensive line that's been near what we expected, what we've come to know from the Eagles' offense in quite some time. And you're seeing the lack of a running game. You're seeing Jalen Hurts not having time to throw.

You're seeing it in their inability to generate offense. Their output was terrible in this loss to the Rams. If they were able to just generate a little bit more offense, they would have won this game. But the bigger picture is now you're missing a Hall of Famer, a right tackle who solidified this offensive line, made for one of the best tackle tandems in the NFL.

That's going to be hard to overcome.

Yeah, Jordan Mailata on the other side as well. Also the emotional toll here, certainly that it's taken on Lane Johnson. He decides to walk away week five, but really on this locker room as well. Jordan Mailata also very much a leader, but he is the rock. Jeff Stoutland, the offensive line coach for so many years, decides to step away and retire in the offseason. And now this, that is a massive hit as well.

It's a massive hit and they're going to have a really hard time overcoming it because the predication of this offense is built on being able to run the football, especially under Sean Mannion.

And they haven't been able to do that so far.

Again, it is the Eagles and the Jaguars coming up Sunday. That game is at Tottenham. Let's look at the Ravens as they're going to play on Sunday night. And Lamar Jackson's status is very much up in the air. Ian Rappaport says that not only is he in doubt this week, he being Lamar, he might be in doubt week six when the Ravens have to go to Cleveland to play the Browns. Former Brown, Tyler Huntley, is the backup. He is a pro bowler. Let's not sneeze at that. But they're a better team with Lamar Jackson. Cowboys are a better team after going into Houston and having an amazing offensive performance in the second half. Second half, 28 points, nearly 300 total yards. This week, short week, Thursday at

home against the Buccaneers.

Todd Bowles pressures. That's what he does, man. And he's one of the best. You know, one of the best certainly I've gone up against in my career. going back to all the spots he's been. This guy's been a head coach or coordinator, I think, for 20-something years, man. He's one of the best. Got some new faces. That always makes it a little bit challenging. He's got a rookie Mike Linebacker in Trotter. He's got a rookie nickel, Keontae Scott, but got a rookie edge piece. So they've got some of the same things that we're dealing with with young players. But the minute you think Todd Bowles isn't going to pressure, you're probably making a mistake.

I understand we've got a team coming there winless, how desperate they're going to be, and it's the NFL, the parity of it, and just knowing that we've got to go prove it again. Nobody cares about the win that happened last Sunday. It's about what we do now, and it's about us putting out our best version of ourselves come Thursday.

All right, that is how we start Week 5. We ended Week 4 with the Falcons and the Saints and the 20th anniversary of the Dome coming, the rebirth, the Steve Gleason block punt there that just... One of the most iconic plays in the history of the league. Let's just put it that way. Michael Penix, Bijan Robinson. Dare I say an iconic offensive performance last night? This is the third play of the game. Bijan, 59 yards. He ran for $ 1. 45. And two scores. He was basically untouched on that. And the Falcons offense did whatever it wanted the entire night. That was his third 50-yard rushing touchdown on a Monday night, which is just ridiculous. That's a short one. And then here on a play fake, this

is classic Kevin Stefanski, Bill Callahan play fake rollout hit Jahan Dotson. The Falcons have scored 80 points in two games. 80 since Michael Penix took over. You thought they were going to have the number one overall pick. Now they're two and two.

We knew when we got the ball first, we were like, we got to score on the first drive, you know, because it was loud out there. And, you know, whenever you score and you have a big play like that, you kind of quiet it down like a little bit, like you just said. So it was definitely big to be able to have that third play.

Of the game.

You lose to the Falcons like that, and especially on a Monday night game, it sucks. There's nothing you can say. It was, oh, man, it doesn't suck. It definitely does. But I do know as a team that we're extremely close and that we're going to keep going and keep our eyes forward. We have really good leadership, and our leadership on the team admits that we've got to get better.

We have to get better and watch the film and evaluate that. There's no hiding that.

If you started B. Robinson last night, you probably did well. Brian Robinson, the former commander, the other Robinson, any Robinson will do, scored three touchdowns. B. John had those two.

Or B.

John, I mean, again, heard it both ways. With Michael Penix, they are a different team. With Cooper Rush, they score eight points a game. With Michael Penix, they score... 40 points a game, and they're in primetime again coming up on Sunday night. They get the Ravens. All right, Shook. Are the Falcons the best team in a bad division, or are they actually now, with Michael Penix, a good team?

I think they're actually a good team.

Like a playoff, like a legit, I don't want to play that team.

I mean, the division part is obviously part of the equation, but I think they're the best team in the NFC South. and they're a team that is quickly transformed into an offense that can do so many different things. This is a classic Kevin Stefanski ideal situation. You have an offensive line that is suddenly blocking well and winning at the point of attack. You have a rushing attack that features two incredible players, really one incredible player and a very good spellback in Brian Robinson. And we used to go back to the days in Cleveland when Nick Chubb was running hard, Kareem Hunt was spelling him. The offensive line coached by Bill Callahan was one of the best in the NFL. They could build out with play action and

hit guys downfield, whether it was Jarvis Langer or whoever else was on that team. This time, It's Drake London. It's Kyle Pitts. You can continue to go down the list. Jahan Dotson. They all ate last night, and they ate because Kevin Stefanski's offense serves them a very wide spread with plenty of options.

With Alex Van Pelt there as well in the coaching staff. With Tommy Reese. And Tommy Reese calling plays. And Austin Hooper.

Back to follow Stefanski to another team and find success.

All of them following Kevin down there. And for the Saints on the flip side, we'll talk about them a little bit later. It's just an emotional gut punch after it was such a huge night and all the buildup. And right out of the gate, the Falcons were the better team. But the Falcons, stop complaining about getting them in primetime. You're going to get them. Again, you're also going to get the Bills in primetime. That is how we end Week 5, cross the street from where we stand now. It's going to be the Bills and the Rams.

Buffalo is coming off Joe Brady's first loss and one that featured four Josh Allen giveaways.

I've come in not in a good mood regardless, right? It's never, the results should not determine how I'm feeling about it or how the guys are. There's a standard by which we play and, um, we're either playing to that standard or not. And, you know, look, we may not ever, ever reach what that is, but, um, it's my job to consistently, you know, uh, set the tone and understand that, uh, if we ride a roller coaster of when we win, it's okay. And when we lose, Hey, we got to clean things up. Then we're going to ride a roller coaster all year. And so, um, It obviously wasn't good enough, you know, and we didn't find a way to go 1-0, but it's not just about the result. It's about all the other stuff that kind

of showed up within the game.

Again, they play Monday night in LA. The Bengals meantime are one of the seven one o'clock Eastern time games on Sunday. They are in Miami. Remember when the Bengals were two and oh, now they are two and two and they can't run the ball again. Same old song, 23 carries or 23 yards on 15 carries against the Jaguars.

Joe Burrow says his answer is to throw it even more. Zach Taylor.

Through four weeks, you're finding what your identity is going to be for the year, you know? And so I think, um, First quarter of the season, you got a snapshot of, okay, here's some things that we can continue to emphasize. Here's some things that we need. And so we have to improve at them. We can't just abandon them and find what our identity is going to be these last three quarters of the season. And like you mentioned, we've got a bunch of experience doing that. We don't hesitate to put our heel in front of anything and say, well, we said this, and so this is what we're going to hammer home. We'll be smart enough to adjust and do what's best for our offensive score points.

Burroughs said he wants to throw the ball more after throwing it 54 times on Sunday. Now, granted, they lost Jamar Chase, concussion protocol, t higgins abductor injury his status very much up in the air on sunday but we spent the entire offseason going oh they're going to be under center right it's the play action game stop putting joe burrow back there and shotgun 50 times a game and then.

All of a sudden look where we are yeah they're going to be more multiple they're going to be able to do so many different things offensively it's not just going to be t higgins and jamar chase Unfortunately, we reverted back to what they used to be, which is throw the ball plenty and do it without Jamar Chase, who left this game to be tested for a concussion, eventually loses Tee Higgins as well.

And you see the product, the result. The thing is, is that really frustrates me or at least mystifies me with this team right now is they can run the football. They ran it well earlier this season. It's just that in this game in particular. Every time they had a nice little run, it got called back by a hold.

You can see it right here.

Samaj P.

Ryan with a nice touchdown run where I thought this game was about to swing. It's coming back because of a holding penalty. That's how you become one dimensional as an offense. And I love Joe Burrow. I think he's a fantastic quarterback. And that's all great that he wants to throw it a billion times. but that's just not winning football. So they've got to find a way to balance this out as they move forward.

Yeah, they get the Dolphins this week, not to say it's not an adequate win. It's a get-right game. Also, the Jaguars low-key have a great run defense, not just defense overall with Anthony Cappinelli calling the shots, but a great run defense. I think it's been like a year since a back has had 85 yards against them. So that's part of the equation as well. But when you lose Jamar Chase and T. Higgins, Clearly, things change. Things have changed as well in Houston. Why? How? For who?

For what? They're 0-4. Are they turning it around? We're back with that after this, the NFL report. You're watching the NFL Report. Let's try to unpack what happened in Cleveland with the Steelers this past Thursday. Aaron Rodgers yelling at the sideline. If you're reading lips, you know that Mike McCarthy said something that he would later say. Listen, I'm a grandfather. I probably should not be saying those things. Yeah, that.

He said that. Back at him. And then yesterday, Mike McCarthy talked about cleaning house. Full context, he meant like cleaning everything up, not getting rid of people.

We need to clean our own house. Our house is not clean right now.

I get it.

It's week five. You're hard-pressed to find a team or two that feels really good about where they are right now. That's the norm. We're going to stay after the focus of what we need to work on. That's what this weekend was about for me. We've been working on it as a coaching staff. We'll have clear factors of what we need to do as far as cleaning our house, and then we'll get ready to go beat Indianapolis. I mean, that's the plan.

I think the context here is very important. In the long answer, he didn't say he wanted a clean house. He said they need to take care of the things inside their house because clearly there are a lot of issues. And McCarthy also said, Nick, on the long weekend there on the mini-bye that he spoke to Aaron Rodgers a lot. Oh, multiple times. So where are they now as they get ready for it?

I mean, if he wanted to clean house, he could fire his quarterback for insubordination, maybe. But I don't think they're going to do that because that wouldn't be good for football. Can they fire all the wide receivers for lack of separation?

Yeah, except for DK late in that game. I mean, Jeremy Bernard, maybe.

He did.

He beat Tyson Campbell.

That's not the issue. The issue is that this is a team that doesn't take care of details. This is a team that doesn't find consistency offensively. They don't go to their best player, who is Jalen Warren, who has been their best player all season. They don't do it nearly enough, especially against defenses that lack the personnel up front to stop him.

And they've lacked an identity. They've failed to find it so far.

But I do think that they're walking into a situation in which everything can be figured out and all the drama and everything else that people were worried about with the Steelers can go away very quickly because they're facing that man right there, Daniel Jones, who, while we have a lot of appreciation for what he does well, he has a problem with turnovers that has reared its ugly head so far this season. And if any defense is going to be capable of capitalizing on that, it's the Steelers' front.

It's a front that's attacking. It's a front that can cause pressure.

And if they can cause pressure, sacks, force fumbles, and then capitalize, I think they'll be able to win this game.

Again, it is the Steelers at home. home against the Colts here in Indianapolis is coming back from London without a bye. Second straight year, the Steelers have had a home game against a team that comes back from London without a bye.

For all the.

Steelers fans that complain about their schedule, I am just saying. All right, let's move on here to my favorite segment. It's time for We're all shook up. He's not dressed like Elvis. There is no leisure suit. There is no wig. But Nick shook's takeaways after week four. You are all shook up about the St.

Stephen.

Yeah, maybe they need a wig, a little incognito to fix the hair a little bit. They definitely didn't show up last night, that's for sure. They did not stop the run, as we covered with the Falcons. They ran all over this defense. And unfortunately, for as good as Tyler Shuck has been, he couldn't overcome it either. He was pressured on 49% of his dropbacks in that game.

Against a Falcons team that hasn't really been known for generating much of a pass rush, they did it really well. That's actually the team that actually has his number the worst. All three of his highest-pressured career games are against the Falcons, so maybe there's just something to that rivalry. He did do pretty well, 13-22 for 146 yards and a touchdown under pressure, but this is not winning football, and it starts on the defense. They have to be able to stop the run and then go back to shot, get more opportunities so we can find success.

I mentioned earlier, are the Falcons the best team in a bad division? We do not forget about the Panthers here. They are quite a good team. They put on a clinic on Sunday night. Bryce Young leads the NFL in passing. Crazy.

This is the year 2026 and Bryce Young is leading the league in passing.

Don't start the MVP talk yet. I'm not ready to get that. Yes, they should pay him.

They absolutely should get to the negotiating table and work out a contract with him because if he continues at this rate, it's going to cost him a lot more money this offseason. The key to this has been their receiving core. They lost Jalen Coker. He finds a great connection. With Tedaroa McMillan, they're able to run the ball effectively with Chuba Hubbard. And it's the passes over the middle of the field like that one to Ted McMillan for a touchdown. He is so poised and confident in year three under Dave Canales. He's making decisions on time with conviction.

He's navigating the pocket well. Everything's going well for them right now. I love watching Bryce Young play football.

I got to see them in person a couple of weeks ago. He's dealing with almost like a middle infielder moving around.

And that was his worst game. Yeah.

I mean, held under the Panthers were held under. I think they score 30 or more in every other game.

All right.

The Texans are still winless, kind of like the Dolphins. You know, it's the Titans this week for them. I'm not saying it's an automatic win, but I mean, they need it more than any team of the NFL, not named the Chargers.

This is the best possible matchup they could have gotten on the schedule this week, given what they've struggled with so far, which is.

The inverse of what was usually their issue. It's no longer C.J.

Stroud.

He played a fantastic game against the Cowboys and they came up short. He let him down the field for a late score and the defense couldn't hold up. That is not the Texans reputation. They are not a team that gives up late scores. But in the last few games, that's all they've done defensively is give up big plays.

You go back to the loss to Cincinnati. Cincinnati didn't move the ball consistently, but they hit big play after big play. And once Dak Prescott and the Cowboys got into a rhythm, they hit tons of big plays.

C.D.

Lamb, a little bit of George Pickens. This is the first time they've started 0-4 under D'Amico Ryans. Only one team in NFL history has made the playoffs after starting 0-4, so they've got to really climb out of this quickly.

Okay, we did not plan this. That is a hack of the transition. You're a talented broadcast professional. That team would be the Chargers. Can we get to them? Because they, too. are 0-4. I honestly don't know what's going on. Just listen to this exchange on Monday. This is a beat writer who's there every day with Jim Harbaugh asking why, and I'm going to paraphrase here, after two and a half years with him in charge, neither he nor the recently hired Mike McDaniel can protect and elevate Justin Herbert.

That just sounds more like an insult than it does a question, but I mean, that's the way you look at it. Um, I'm saying that, yeah, it's the kind of competitor that he is. I've never seen him flinch. I've never seen him rattled. He's an amazing inspiration, and that's what we do. We all feed off of that.

I know the entire team does, and you ask me what gives me what gives me optimism, what gives me hope with this football team, because I see that throughout the entire team. And yeah, we attack, we improve. Can't improve everything all at once, but we can improve one thing at a time, all the time. And that's what this team is doing.

It wasn't it's all just, I'm just asking it.

It's the third season now.

He's still among the most pressure to get quarterbacks.

I'm just asking you why.

I think that answers your question. You can answer it the same way. You can answer it the same way.

I don't think you answered it.

But you can answer it the same way.

OK, by the end of the game, when the Chargers, to be fair, did make a run after starting so poorly on the road against the Super Bowl champions, for what it's worth, they had four rookies on the offensive line because of all the injuries, one of whom, Jake Slaughter, was really playing out of position at guard. He's initially a center, or he was in college at Florida. So there's that there as well. But that's a lot to unpack.

It's a lot.

And the problem is, is it's the same issues that are rearing their ugly head. You talk about protecting and elevating Justin Herbert. They lose so many offensive linemen. They're right back in the bad plays that they were in in years past where Herbert's got to play hero, except this time in this offense, he's operating in a complex scheme that he.

Still hasn't found his footing in.

And this is a scheme that Mike McDaniel, his reputation was as a great run game designer. Well, when you don't have a healthy offensive line, you can't really get the run game going, which puts more pressure on Justin Herbert to try to find success.

Instead, he's forcing throws. He's trying to do too much.

And it's bringing the entire offensive operation down. So you know, you think about how do you fix this? Well, you can't just magically get healthy on the offensive line. You've got to settle your quarterback. You've got to give him some layups early in the next game in order to get him settled and kind of comfortable as they try to dig their way out of this early hole.

You thought you would give him a layup? I mean, that's logically what you do for any quarterback to start a game. He got picked off on the very first play. in Seattle and before the keyboard warriors could say something snarky on social media, Sam Darnold got picked off of the very first Seahawks play. Coming up next, do Patriots fans still hate you? Yes.

Okay.

Where are the Patriots in Nick Shook's latest power rankings and have you people calmed down yet? So you know what I do on Sunday coming home from a game? I log into my NFL Plus Premium. You get Red Zone. You get game replays. You can track the advanced analytics. You do the NGS. You could look at all 22 eventually, not necessarily Sunday afternoon, but you get NFL Pro. Get that.

Sign up today. Plus.NFL.com. Plus.NFL.com. Slash fast. Honestly, I don't know what I would do without it. Terms and conditions do apply. There are terms and conditions as well to Nick Shook's power rankings. We're not going to show you the top. You've got to tune in. Coming up next on the NFL Channel, you can see Nick Shook's full power rankings. He's a self-loathing Browns fan. He's going to keep them at 17. They're not moving, despite the fact that they punch the Steelers in their collective mouths. But did you see there that Shook has the Patriots at 18? Okay, eh, they went into Buffalo and they got a win. But they were at 31 last week?

Yeah, because they looked like one of the worst outfits in professional football last week.

What's your mailbox like?

It's stuffed with Patriots, angry Patriots fans right now.

Some demanding written apologies.

I'm not going to go that far because they produced one quality performance so far.

I'm not going to give them the Steelers win as a ton of credit.

But this game, this win means more because it's in division, it's against a rival, and it's a game in which you had to come back from a late deficit and Drake may have had to deliver. He's back on the right track to success, but it's still only one game. However, it was funny that going through the process when I did move them up, this was not intentional.

They went right back to where they were before. which was 18.

They do it again. They'll climb, but right now that's where I'm putting them.

Okay, call your shot right now. If they beat the Raiders at home, the Raiders are 3-1, have a better record, do they move up?

They will move up, and I think them and the Raiders will end up very close to each other because the Raiders are just outside the top 10 right now.

Okay. Tell me that if the Raiders beat the Patriots and go to 4-1, the Raiders are a top 10 team.

They are at 12 right now, so they could sneak right into the top 10.

The Raiders are for real. Take them seriously.

No, I know they are. Week 12, Browns Raiders getting flexed into Sunday night. Talk it into reality right now. I have no knowledge that that's going to happen. I'm just saying. Let's do some quick hits. Let's get some other news from around the NFL. The Union for the Referees, the NFL RA, says it is going to challenge the severity of the suspensions. Adrian Hill got a game. Jeff Seaman got two for unprofessional conduct this past Sunday. The Union says that they were too harsh. Okay. We told you yesterday Joe Mixon's going to sign with the Seahawks practice squad. Not going to happen. As it turns out, remember, Mixon didn't play last year in Houston. Some kind of foot injury. He got there, and the Seahawks went, nope,

we're not going to do it. So they signed a couple of other running backs instead. In Los Angeles, UCLA legend Eric Hendricks is signing with the Rams, at least on their practice squad. Eric Hendricks, not doing media, going back to the NFL, practice squad for the Rams. Cool. Time for one more thing before we go. We'd like to issue a big congratulations to Pat Sertan and his fiancée Kevia. Got married this past summer. They are expecting their first child together. I mean, it's such big news.

The NFL put it on the IG today and the Twitter. Pat Sertan, his status for this week and next or even beyond that, very much over there with the ankle injury, but he has good news with us. The baby right around the corner. Power rankings coming up.

Coming up.

Check them all out. Biggest surprise is?

I mean, Patriots moved. We got a lot of surprises. Not at the top, though. Still the Niners.

All right. Email him.

Not me. Bye.

The NFL Report: Lane Johnson is Calling it a Career + Nick Shook Joins the Show

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