You wouldn’t blame him if he was bitter. If he was jealous. If he had a big-time case of FOMO.
Patrick Johnson spent training camp last year with the Eagles, made the 53-man roster and then played 26 special teams snaps in the season-opening win over the Packers in São Paulo.
A few days later, the Eagles released Johnson to make room for backup center Nick Gates with the intent to sign Johnson to the practice squad.
But the Giants claimed him, Johnson spent the season with the 3-14 NFC East cellar dwellers and watched the team he began the season with win the Super Bowl.
While his friends and former teammates were clobbering the Chiefs in New Orleans, Johnson was back in New York watching the game on TV.
“Since the Eagles played a lot of prime-time games, and then I played a lot of 1 o’clock games, I was able to watch pretty much every single game,” Johnson said. “I kept in touch with all the guys here, so it was always cool to see what they were doing.”
The Eagles signed Johnson back in March as free agency opened, and he’s now in his fifth consecutive training camp with the team that drafted him in the seventh round back in 2021.
“It ended up being a solid year for me,” Johnson said after practice on Tuesday. “I got a chance to go over there to New York and got to play a lot of ball. And obviously, they went to the Super Bowl, they ended up winning. I was cheering them on the whole time.
“I still have a lot of love for the city, the people, the players, the front office and stuff. If I had hate in my heart for this place, I wouldn’t have come back. But they’ve all been great for me since I came back so I was happy that they got the championship last year.”
Johnson, an edge rusher by trade, played only 46 snaps on defense with the Giants, but he played 263 on special teams, which has been his bread and butter since entering the league. He’s played 1,155 special teams snaps as a pro but only 408 defensive snaps, most of them in his first two seasons.
Even though he only played in one game last year for the Eagles, he did get a Super Bowl ring. He may be the first player in NFL history to be a part of 14 losses and still get a Super Bowl ring.
“Yeah, I was super excited,” he said. “Since I got to play the first game of the year with the team, I got a ring. So a lot of love.”
Johnson became a free agent after last season ended, and he didn’t hesitate to rejoin the Eagles, signing a one-year, $1.275 million deal — slightly over minimum wage — two days into free agency.
Why come back?
“Just the people, man,” he said. “It (starts) with the front office, Mr. (Jeffrey) Lurie and Howie (Roseman). They just do things right here. And so just the relationships you have with people, it’s always been great. I’ve been here now for five years and things haven’t changed at all.”
Johnson is one of only seven players remaining who the Eagles drafted in 2021 or before, along with Lane Johnson in 2013, Dallas Goedert and Jordan Mailata in 2018, Jalen Hurts in 2020 and DeVonta Smith and Landon Dickerson in 2021.
He’s now 27 and one of the oldest players on the defense. Only cornerback Parry Nickerson (30), edge Ogbo Okoronkwo (30), former Giants teammate Adoree’ Jackson (29) and Zack Baun (28) are younger.
Johnson is battling for a roster spot as edge depth and special teams, but that’s no different than every year. For a guy like him, the preseason games are huge, starting with the Bengals Thursday night at the Linc.
“I’ve been battling my way on the roster since 2021, 7th-round guy,” he said. “So I know that going into the preseason games, you have to do everything that you can, you got to display everything that you have as a player.
“The more you can do, the better. And I feel like that’s all pretty much you can do. And don’t worry about the things on the outside, because everything that you’re doing in the field is going to take care of itself.”
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