NFL roundup: Eagles keep Lane Johnson on the 53, Chargers' Herbert problem, Jets get a pep talk
Tuesday's league news has a theme if you squint: teams paying for decisions they already made. Philadelphia is managing a cap bill for a retired tackle. Los Angeles is managing a quarterback who was supposed to be the entire offense. Washington is managing a left elbow that the medical community keeps discussing in the future tense.
Start in Philadelphia. Sources told ESPN the Eagles will keep Lane Johnson on the 53-man roster until after June 1 for salary cap purposes, and Johnson is retired, so this isn't a depth-chart decision. It's a bill spread out instead of paid at once. The least interesting part of the story is the accounting. The interesting part is multiple changes to the offensive line, which is what teams say in October when the five they planned on aren't the five they have. The box score backs it: Jalen Hurts at 21-of-40 for 220 yards and 5.5 yards per attempt is a quarterback throwing into a pocket that keeps collapsing. Who it hurts is Hurts. Who it helps is nobody in a green jersey.
Cris Carter aimed at Jim Harbaugh over Justin Herbert's offensive inefficiency and also knocked Mike McDaniel's new system. Criticizing two offenses in one breath is a tell. Half of that is a general complaint about new schemes, and I'd throw out the McDaniel half. The Harbaugh half I'll keep. A coach who has a top-shelf arm and an inefficient passing game has a system problem, not a quarterback problem, and the fix has to come from the headset. If the Chargers' passing numbers stay capped all season, the loudest criticism of Harbaugh will come from inside the building, not from a TV desk.
Ronnie Lott offered encouragement to Aaron Glenn, who is 4-17 in New York and has not beaten a team with a winning record. Encouragement calls are lovely and also a signal. Nobody schedules the Hall of Famer when things are going well. The 3-1 Browns are next, which is the whole problem in one line: the exact thing Glenn hasn't done is standing across from him. My read is that this is the most winnable game on the Jets' near-term board, and I'll take New York to beat a team above .500 for the first time. If Cleveland wins going away, the Lott visit stops being a mentorship story and becomes the beginning of the end.
Doctors around the league told ESPN it's a matter of when, not if, Jayden Daniels dislocates his left elbow again. That is not an injury report. It's a design constraint, and the Commanders have to build an offense that assumes their quarterback will miss time. It costs Washington the off-schedule plays that make Daniels special, because every scramble is a risk the medical staff has already priced. Whoever backs him up in Washington just became one of the most important backup quarterbacks in football, and any long-term extension conversation now starts with the elbow, not the arm talent.
Ohio State's Jeremiah Smith moved ahead of Arch Manning in the odds to be the first overall pick in the 2027 draft. I don't buy it. The top of the draft is a quarterback market, and a receiver leading the board in October of his college season says more about Manning's stock than Smith's. Smith is the best non-quarterback in that class. My guess is he goes second or third, which is a great career and not a first overall pick.
The through-line across all of it: the teams scrambling are the ones that built around a single expensive idea. Philadelphia's line, Los Angeles' passing game, Washington's quarterback, New York's coach. My verdict, on the record: the Eagles' cap move is noise, the Harbaugh criticism has teeth, and the Jets beat the Browns this week. If I'm wrong about that last one, the Lott story gets a much worse second act.
