Big Fred shuts down top pass rusher in Eagles' blowout win

CINCINNATI — Fred Johnson peeked down at the folded jersey in his lap and read the message from Trey Hendrickson.

“Respect is earned”

And Big Fred earned a ton of it on Sunday afternoon.

Filling in at left tackle for the injured Jordan Mailata, Johnson shut down one of the most feared pass rushers in the NFL and then got a chance to swap jerseys with him after the Eagles’ 37-17 win over the Bengals.

“I think I did good,” Johnson said of his battle with Hendrickson. “A lot of things to improve on. A lot of things to celebrate. But back to the drawing board this week, watch the film, get it corrected and move on.”

Johnson was better than good.

In fact, Johnson allowed just 1 pressure on 22 pass blocking snaps (4.5%) against the Bengals, according to NFL Next Gen Stats. That was his lowest pressure rate this season.

There were some plays where the Eagles got creative to thwart Hendrickson. They ran screens to his side, they left him unblocked and ran away from him. But there were sometimes when Johnson just had to block him 1-on-1 — and he held his own.

“You can’t really control how the plays are called,” Johnson said. “You might need people in other places and people doing other things. You can’t really control the draw. … When they needed me to execute, I tried my best.”

In Johnson’s 13 snaps in pass protection against Hendrickson, he surrendered just one pressure. That pressure rate of 7.7% was the second-lowest allowed to Hendrickson by any offensive lineman all season with a minimum of five matchups, per Next Gen Stats.

Entering Sunday’s game, Hendrickson had 7 sacks in 7 games after a 17 1/2-sack season in 2023. He has been to the last three Pro Bowls and is one of the best and most underrated pass rushers in the NFL.

And since Hendrickson lines up almost exclusively on the right side of the defensive line, everyone knew it would be Johnson vs. Hendrickson all afternoon.

“When you have a player, the player of his caliber, the guy is a stud,” Eagles head coach Nick Siriani said. “And when you have a player of that caliber who you put a lot of emphasis on, you think of him a lot and the offensive staff did a great job of making a game plan around him. 

“Fred was great when he was left in solo situations. That always takes coaches putting them in the right position and having players going out there and execute. We knew with 91, it wasn’t going to be just a one-man job. Fred was going to have to do the job the majority of the times and then other guys were going to have help out as well.”

Johnson, 27, played for the Bengals from 2019-21 and was teammates with Hendrickson for part of that time. During this week, Johnson said he felt like he had something to prove in his return to Cincinnati and he certainly did.

After the big win, Johnson said coming back to Cincinnati was “definitely special” but he didn’t want to get into too many specifics why. Johnson was once on the path to becoming — at best — an NFL journeyman, but he has seemed to find a home in Philadelphia, playing for legendary offensive line coach Jeff Stoutland.

With Mailata (hamstring) out for at least two more games, the Eagles are going to need Johnson to keep it up.

And if he ever needs a boost of confidence, he can glance at that No. 91 jersey that will soon be hanging on his wall and remember the day he shut down one of the best in the business.

“I asked him for his jersey,” said Johnson, who was sending his No. 74 back to Hendrickson. “Because we had that respect for each other when I was here. He’s a hell of a player, hell of a guy, hell of a teammate. That Super Bowl run we had with him when I got here, just talking to him each and every day, how dedicated he is to his craft, to this game, his team. I was like, ‘OK, I need your jersey bruh.’ It was just fun to go against him, fun to compete against an old teammate.”

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