Lane Johnson could have played two or three more years to beef up his Hall of Fame resume with another couple Pro Bowls and maybe another all-pro or two. He’s just not wired that way. When he knew it was time to walk away, he made the call, even though he knows it may cost him a trip to Canton. What about with one more Pro Bowl season? Is Lane Johnson a Hall of Famer? Unlike long-time teammate Jason Kelce, he’s not a Hall of Fame slam dunk. Johnson has been the best right tackle in football for over a decade, but that may not be enough. Let’s start with this: Lane Johnson is one of only six offensive linemen in NFL history to make six Pro Bowls, 1st-team all-pro twice and start on two championship teams. Of the five others, four are Hall of Famers: Forrest Gregg, Jim Parker, Art Shell and Rayfield Wright. The fifth is Jim Tyrer, who has been kept out of the Hall of Fame for some pretty ugly non-football reasons. Johnson has piled up a rare combination of individual accolades and team success. He’s the only offensive tackle to receive multiple 1st-team all-pro honors and win multiple Super Bowls over the past 25 years. If that doesn’t make Johnson a Hall of Famer I don’t know what does.  Since Johnson entered the league in 2013 he’s the only right tackle to make six Pro Bowls. Only left tackles Trent Williams and Tyron Smith have made more among all offensive tackles.  The Pro Football Focus analytics are insane with Lane. In his 13-year career, he’s played 6,774 pass-block snaps and allowed 33 sacks and 37 quarterback hits. That’s a sack every 205 pass plays in his career. And 11 of those sacks and eight QB hits were his rookie year. And get this: Over the last six seasons, Johnson has played 3,256 pass-block snaps and allowed five sacks and six QB hits, according to PFF. That’s a sack every 651 snaps, and that’s absolutely mind-blowing. We all know what Johnson has meant to the Eagles over the years. When he plays, they’re 120-62-1. When he doesn’t, they’re 15-27. In what world is that not a Hall of Famer? And Johnson has spent most of his career on an island with no inside help, facing the top edge rushers in the NFL by himself. That will change this year, but his career has been defined by 1-on-1 pass blocking at a mind-boggling level. “I think Lane’s been the most important offensive lineman if not the most important player for the Eagles during this run of success,” Kelce said after Johnson’s announcement on Saturday. “I mean, the record speaks for itself when he’s in the lineup and when he’s not.  “I don’t think people really fully grasp the level of difficulty that his job has been. And, you know, the Eagles have taken advantage of it, it’s allowed them to do a lot of things structurally and formationally and from route concepts. But leaving tackles on islands and six-man protection, it’s very hard to do. And not a lot of tackles are put in that position. “I think PFF has kept track of that island percentage, and he’s always at the top, however they calculate it, yeah. He’s always in a league of his own in terms of being on an island, and when Jason Peters here, it was the same way, it’s the same way with Jordan Mailata.  “So yeah, I think he’s been spectacular. I don’t think there’s been another pass-protecting tackle to say the least that’s been better than him for sure.” Now, there is an elephant in the room when it comes to Johnson’s Hall of Fame chances, and that’s his two suspensions early in his career – four games in 2014 and 10 games in 2016.  Not excusing him for the suspensions, but it is important to note that all six of his Pro Bowls, all five of his all-pro honors and all three of his Super Bowl appearances have come since the second suspension, when he stopped using supplements. And for the last decade, when he was the best offensive tackle in football, he was clean. The problem is the Hall of Fame voters are almost exclusively conservative old-timers who may really weigh those suspensions heavily and hold them against Johnson. The way I look at it, they were early in his career, he clearly learned from them and never failed another test, and then became the premier right tackle of his generation. If anything I feel like Lane deserves credit for moving past some early adversity, learning from it and growing from it. There’s no doubt Johnson has been a Hall of Fame talent. Whether that’s enough to get him to Canton remains to be seen. ...read more read less