CINCINNATI – Fred Johnson glanced at the folded jersey in his lap and read the message from Trey Hendrickson.

“Respect is deserved”

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

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

“I think I did well,” Johnson said of his fight with Hendrickson. “There are many things that can be improved. There is a lot to celebrate. But back to the drawing board this week, watch the film, get it corrected and move on.”

Johnson was more than good.

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

There were a few plays where the Eagles got creative to thwart Hendrickson. They ran the umbrellas at his side, released him, and ran away from him. But sometimes Johnson just had to block him one-on-one – and he held his own.

“You can’t really control what the plays are called,” Johnson said. “Maybe you need people in other places and people doing other things. You can’t really control the draw. … When they needed me executed, I did my best.”

In Johnson’s 13 snaps in pass protection against Hendrickson, he only allowed one pressure. That 7.7% pressure rate was the second-lowest Hendrickson allowed by an offensive lineman all season with at least five faceoffs, according to Next Gen Stats.

Entering Sunday’s game, Hendrickson had 7 sacks in 7 games, following 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 with Hendrickson playing 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, a player of his caliber, the guy is a real catcher,” Eagles head coach Nick Siriani said. “And when you have a player of that caliber that you place a lot of value on, you think about him a lot, and the offensive staff has done a great job of developing a game plan around him.”

“Fred was great when he was out on his own. To do this, the coaches always have to put them in the right position and get the players to go and perform. We knew that with 91 it wouldn’t just be a one-man job. Most of the time Fred had to do the work, and then other people needed help too.”

Johnson, 27, played for the Bengals from 2019-21 and was a teammate of Hendrickson at one point. During this week, Johnson said he felt like he had something to prove when he returned to Cincinnati, and he did.

After the big win, Johnson said returning to Cincinnati was “definitely special,” but he didn’t want to delve too deeply into the reasons why. Johnson was once well on his way to becoming an NFL journeyman, but he seemed to find a home in Philadelphia, playing for legendary offensive line coach Jeff Stoutland.

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

And if he ever needs a boost of confidence, he can take a look at the number 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 sent his No. 74 back to Hendrickson. “Because we had that respect for each other when I was here. He’s a great player, a great guy, a great teammate. The Super Bowl run we had with him when I got here, just talking to him every day about how dedicated he was to his craft, to this game, to his team. I was like, ‘Okay, I need your jersey, bro.’ It was just fun to compete against him, it was fun to compete against an old teammate.”

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