Sources: Eagles' Johnson notified of suspension

OFFICIALLY, THE Eagles know nothing about any Lane Johnson suspension, Doug Pederson said Tuesday.

Unofficially, league sources confirmed an Inquirer report: Johnson has been notified of the long-expected, 10-game suspension after testing positive for what the Eagles' right tackle has said were banned peptides that weren't on the label of an amino acid supplement he took. The Eagles certainly are aware of this.

Johnson's appeal will be heard Oct. 4. He will be allowed to practice and play this week against the Steelers. Then the Eagles have their bye week, and they probably will begin preparing to play Detroit with a first practice on - such a coincidence - Oct. 5. Though appeals have been known to take at least a few weeks.

The league said it had no comment Tuesday, and it is unlikely to say anything until the process is complete. The Eagles can afford to wait for the league to acknowledge the suspension; they don't lose anything in the interim.

Pederson said that if Johnson is suspended, he'll go back to his preseason plan of moving left guard Allen Barbre to right tackle. It would seem Stefen Wisniewski might now be ahead of rookie Isaac Seumalo in the competition to replace Barbre; Seumalo has been inactive thus far and Pederson said Tuesday he is still recovering from his preseason pec strain.

Johnson has said he found out July 30 that a June drug test was positive, and that he would be suspended 10 games if the B sample showed the same result. Johnson is a second-time offender, by virtue of having been suspended four games for taking Adderall without a medical exemption in 2014.

If he loses the appeal and starts his suspension with the Detroit game, Johnson will be eligible to return Dec. 18 at Baltimore.

Doug Pederson expressed the kind of patience with his receiving corps Tuesday that a 2-0 coach can afford to demonstrate, although drops by Jordan Matthews and Nelson Agholor took what could have been two more touchdown passes away from Carson Wentz in a 29-14 Eagles victory at Chicago.

"They just continue to work every day. Sometimes things like that happen. They know," Pederson said. "They're professionals. They pride themselves, obviously, in catching the football. They were mad at themselves . . . Those are big plays.

"I'm not going to stop calling plays to them, because I know they're explosive guys for us. We've just got to continue to work."

Pederson said his feeling when he was a quarterback, and now that he is calling plays, "I actually want to call plays to go right back to those guys, and get them right back catching the football and focused in."

Matthews again led the Eagles, this time with six catches for 71 yards, on nine targets. But a perfect rainbow of a 35-yard touchdown pass went through his hands just before halftime. Agholor caught four passes for 42 yards, on seven targets. He had a chance at a long bomb that he couldn't haul in, another long pass that he didn't catch probably should have been ruled defensive pass interference, then, an end-zone fade was slapped out of his hands.

Even with some drops, Matthews has 13 catches for 185 yards through two games. That projects to 104 and 1,480 over a full season.

Doug Pederson was asked his thoughts on going for it on fourth down, which the Eagles have done four times in their first two games, converting each time: "Sometimes it is a feel thing. It depends on how your team is playing. That's just a gut feeling you have as a play-caller," he said. "The other thing is, when you talk about math, you're looking at where you are on the field, the actual distance, the line to gain at that time, does a punt vs. a field goal help you in those situations - you're trying to do a quick little calculation of all that, to make those decisions.

"I felt that (Monday) night, all of those boxes were checked in order for us to go for it on fourth."

Pederson said he doesn't have a fourth-down chart, like for two-point conversions, but the Birds' analytical team looks at fourth-down scenarios across the league and compiles data.

The Eagles did fail on a fourth-down try near the Bears' goal line, but rookie defensive lineman Leonard Floyd was whistled for a neutral-zone infraction which, frankly, was not obvious on replay. Ryan Mathews sprinted around left end for a touchdown on the next play.

The Eagles are plus-four in turnover ratio, and more important, they haven't turned the ball over, something that caused Doug Pederson to rap the veneer of the Soldier Field visitors' press conference room lectern Monday night when someone pointed that out. "It's a pride factor for the guys," Pederson said.

Carson Wentz is the first NFL quarterback since the 1970 AFL-NFL merger to start and win his first two games with no turnovers, ESPN said.

The Steelers haven't won in Philadelphia since 1965 (0-8) . . . The last time the Eagles and Steelers met with both teams 2-0 was 1954, Elias said . . . Caleb Sturgis is fine after battling cramps Monday night, Doug Pederson said . . . The Eagles outscored the Browns and Bears, 36-10, in the second halves of those games . . . The Eagles held Alshon Jeffery to two catches for 26 yards in the second half . . . No change in the status of tight end Zach Ertz (displaced rib) or corner Leodis McKelvin (hamstring), Pederson said. They seem unlikely to play until after the bye.