Eagles tackle Fred Johnson gets revenge and Trey Hendrickson’s jersey in Cincinnati

“I love you, bro.”

”I’m proud of you, man.”

As he peeled off his jersey almost an hour after his Eagles won, Fred Johnson pointed at a plastic bag at his feet with a dirty white Bengals jersey inside.

“He gave me that,” he said.

Who?

“Trey.”

No kidding? They’d shared a club for less than a calendar year, and Johnson was on his way out of Cincinnati when the Bengals brought Trey Hendrickson in, but he got Hendrickson’s game jersey?

Hendrickson was a $60 million free-agent defensive end in 2021. Johnson was an undrafted backup, a mammoth of a man but a project of an offensive lineman, in his third NFL season, with no guarantee he’d ever see a fourth.

» READ MORE: ‘A bigger purpose:’ Inside Fred Johnson’s improbable path to becoming a key Eagles offensive lineman

Actually, the way the NFL works, this makes some small sense. Hendrickson was a defensive starter, so he competed against Johnson, a backup, at every practice. That’s how they became friends. And so, after the Bengals waived Johnson in March 2022, Hendrickson followed Johnson’s path through Tampa Bay until the Buccaneers released him in November 2022. Johnson then went to Philadelphia, which first placed him on its practice squad that month, stashed him on a futures contract through the 2023 offseason, then signed him to a two-year deal in September 2023.

Sunday might have played out last month. When right tackle Lane Johnson missed two starts due to a concussion earlier this season, Fred Johnson was the next man up, and when he played well in New Orleans, a redemption story was there to be written the next week, only in Tampa. Except Fred Johnson gave up two sacks in Tampa.

» READ MORE: Jeff McLane: Have the Eagles found their offensive identity after pounding the Bengals? Jalen Hurts says he’s been pushing for it.

However, when Jordan Mailata was lost two weeks ago to a hamstring injury, Johnson was the next man up, but he gave up a sack against the Giants in an uninspired performance. But again, a redemption story was there to be written, this time in Cincinnati on Sunday.

And this time, Fred Johnson was magnificent.

No sacks. No penalties. No kidding? No kidding.

» READ MORE: Marcus Hayes: Jalen Hurts, in mismatched shoes, outduels college rival Joe Burrow as Eagles win third straight since the bye

It’s kind of amazing. Since the start of the 2020 season Hendrickson has 60 sacks — only reigning Defensive Player of the Year Myles Garrett and 2021 DPOY T.J. Watt have more — but, on Sunday, Hendrickson never got close to Jalen Hurts. Fred Johnson played with an assurance that surprised even him. He could not resist a little preening.

As the Eagles buried the Bengals by 20, Johnson tried to catch the eye of the coach who cut him.

“I was staring at Zac Taylor the whole time,” Johnson told a teammate, now brimming with redemption. “He didn’t want to look at me!”

Truth be told, it wasn’t vengeance against Taylor or familiarity with Hendrickson that helped Johnson play perhaps the best game in his six NFL seasons. He was just, finally, comfortable.

» READ MORE: Eagles grades vs. Bengals: Offense clicks with Jalen Hurts at his best and Saquon Barkley going over 100 yards

“I guess I’ve just built some confidence,” he said. “That’s the only thing I didn’t have last game. You’ve got to believe in yourself before anybody believes in you. Hopefully, on film, it shows.”

Johnson will be a free agent again after this season, and he’ll need a lot more film than just Sunday’s to convince GMs that he’s more than a 6-foot-7, 326-pound obstacle. At any rate, against one of the best in the business, it showed Sunday.

“He’s a hell of a player. Tough as [expletive],” Johnson said of Hendrickson. ”Tough as [double-expletive].”

They didn’t look tough when it was over. They looked human.

Afterward, after the hug and handshake, Johnson asked Hendrickson for the shirt off his back. Off it came, with a final hug and parting words:

“I love you, bro,” Johnson told Hendrickson.

Hendrickson replied, “I’m proud of you, man.”

Jerry Jones’ son, Jerry Jr., his daughter, Charlotte Jones, and her son, Shy Anderson Jr., escaped significant injury when their vehicle was impacted by a rising barrier outside Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif. Anderson, who works in scouting, escaped unscathed, The Athletic reported, but Jerry Jr., who runs sales and marketing, suffered a minor head injury, and Charlotte, the team’s branding honcho, hurt her ribs, but both attended the game. Jerry Jones Sr. was in a different car.

» READ MORE: Eagles secondary clamps down on Ja’Marr Chase and comes up with a big interception

In other news, as the Cowboys fell to 3-4, Dak Prescott threw two interceptions, Mike McCarthy again coached horribly, and cornerback Trevon Diggs exited the closed locker room postgame to cuss out Dallas TV reporter Mike Leslie for posting a question on social media about a particular play on which Diggs pursued a receiver. Specifically, Diggs invited the reporter to discuss Diggs’ genitalia.

It was an innocuous tweet, if ill-conceived: Diggs came across the field and saved a touchdown, and might have been justifiably peeved. But so peeved he exited the locker room and sought out the tweeter?

This is a sign of a team coming unraveled. Leslie, meanwhile, wryly posted that he would not address the sensitive matter.

The Chiefs moved to 7-0 despite Patrick Mahomes, the NFL’s best player, throwing a league-worst ninth interception and posting a passer rating under 100 for the sixth straight game. Imagine how good they’re going to be when he stops stinking.

Sean Payton — the same guy who, last year, said his predecessor in Denver, Nathaniel Hackett, did “one of the worst coaching jobs in the history of the NFL” — delivered this beauty to diminish his own defense after the Broncos stifled the Panthers: “It’s not a good offense we played. It’s just the truth.”

» READ MORE: DeVonta Smith’s improbable TD catch for the Eagles underscores a bounce-back day vs. Bengals

Deshaun Watson ruptured his Achilles tendon last week, which gave Eminem stan Jameis Winston a window of opportunity to prove himself NFL-worthy after using the nine previous seasons proving he’s not. Winston went 5-for-11 with a touchdown and no interceptions in relief in a close loss to the Bengals last week, then, in a start Sunday against the dangerous Ravens, he went 27-for-41 with three TDs, including a last-minute game-winner for the 2-6 Browns. He told CBS on-field interviewer Amanda Balionis, quoting the noted poet and philosopher from the gritty, 8-mile neighborhood that spawned a film of the same name:

“It’s a white boy from Detroit that I really admire, named Eminem. He said, ‘You only get one shot. Do not miss your chance to blow. This opportunity lasts once in a lifetime.’ ”

Yes. Winston actually said this.

In a sort of reverse karma, now that they’re without serial sexual-abuse-suit settler Watson, the Browns got a huge break: On the play before Winston’s winning TD, Kyle Hamilton, the best safety in football, dropped an easy interception that would have sealed a win for Baltimore.

Jets kicker Greg Zuerlein, 36, missed a 44-yard field goal and an extra point Sunday — four points — in the Jets’ three-point loss to the abysmal Patriots. His six missed field goals lead the NFL. … After they lost Super Bowl LVII two seasons ago, the Eagles lost offensive coordinator Shane Steichen, who became the head coach of the Colts, and DC Jonathan Gannon, who became the head coach in Arizona. Each is now 4-4 this season. … Jared Goff has a passer rating of 154.9 in his last four games, but the balanced Lions haven’t needed him to do much: He’s just 70-for-83 for 970 yards, with 10 touchdowns and no interceptions. … The Falcons might have found something in Kirk Cousins, whose four-TD game put Atlanta at 5-3 and atop the NFC South. The Falcons have beaten the Buccaneers home-and-home and the Eagles on the road.