Philadelphia Eagles right tackle Lane Johnson is excited to play in his new offense.
“Yeah, I’m excited about this new system,” he said. “I think it has some Shanahan implements in it, and I think it may be easier on the edge for [left tackle] Jordan [Mailata] and I. So maybe not as much isolation, and when you run some wide zone like the [San Francisco] 49ers, and the guy comes under you, you’re not worried about it. You just keep going. I can get used to that. So yeah, man, I’m excited. I’ve watched these offenses from afar and been like, ‘[expletive], that looks pretty fun.'”
The “Shanahan offense” is named after two-time Super Bowl champion head coach Mike Shanahan. Shanahan is built on the backbone of the West Coast offense, but it prioritized the wide zone run scheme. Wide zone stretches the defense horizontally, giving the offensive line an advantage since they can afford to block the nearest man down the line rather than having to block a specific defender. It also opens up the play-action pass.
Shanahan passed down his core tenets to the assistants in his coaching tree: his son Kyle, now head coach of the 49ers; Sean McVay, now head coach of the Los Angeles Rams; and Matt LaFleur, now head coach of the Green Bay Packers. LaFleur, in turn, passed down his offense to Mannion.
Johnson and Whitworth—who played left tackle for 16 years with the Cincinnati Bengals and Los Angeles Rams—also talked about how the play-action and screen passing game allows the offensive tackles to be aggressive and attack defenders instead of pass protecting on an island.
“I think it’s something maybe we’ve gotten away from, is the screen game,” he said. “I think last year you didn’t see a whole lot of pin-and-pulls, us getting out on the edge. I think it’s a lot better now than what it was 10 years ago, back when they could cut you. So, it’s a lot different story out there now.”
A new rushing attack will also help unlock running back Saquon Barkley. After breaking the 2,000-yard mark in 2024, defenses adjusted to Patullo’s offense and bottled Barkley up; he rushed for just 1,140 yards in 2025. Johnson took accountability for the role the offensive line played, citing poor communication and adjustments.
“I know what he’s capable of, I know what we’re capable of, and whenever we’re not putting that stuff out there on film, it’s frustrating,” he said. “[We have a] good offseason to think about it from the day-to-day, gives you the most motivation come season time to change it. We’re all like that. We all feel a little bit sour. I feel like when we’ve been in these situations before, a lot of good’s come from it.”
“He’s meant everything to me in my career,” Johnson recounted. “We came in the same year together … just a great teacher, not only on the field, but off the field. I have so many memories of just being in meetings and practice with him. He was a guy that just always got the best out of me. He knew how to motivate me … it was very unexpected, but when we don’t perform to expectations, things like this happen.”
“The conversations I had with Coach Kuper, [he] seems like a really cool guy, spent a number of years in the league, played at a high level,” he said. “And I’m excited about Sean Mannion joining our staff, too. I think he’ll have a Shane Steichen-type of trajectory. So I’m excited to get to work with those guys.”