For football fans, few things are tougher to stomach than watching your favorite players call it quits. It’s no different than fans of popular TV series such as “The Sopranos”, “Breaking Bad”, “Seinfeld” and “Friends.” It’s never easy to say goodbye to something you love that you spent years and years watching on television.
But nothing lasts forever. Many of our favorite NFL players over the past decade opted to walk away from the game they loved this offseason, and we can only say one thing: Thank you for the memories.
With that said, here are the 10 most notable NFL players who retired in 2023.
Tom Brady
Did you hear the news? Yeah, Tom Brady retired AGAIN in February. And he actually meant it this time…we think?
Brady’s initial retirement — announced on Feb. 1, 2022 — lasted 40 days. But so far, he hasn’t walked back on his second retirement announcement, which fittingly took place on Feb. 1 of this year.
So we’re going to go ahead then and assume that the seven-time Super Bowl champion is done for good. I mean, it’s a little late now to un-retire, sign with a new team and learn their playbook in a matter of weeks.
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Brady didn’t look like he was enjoying himself much at all in his 2022 swan song season, so retirement was probably for the best.
So here it is, folks. For the first time since 1999, we enter an NFL season with no involvement of Brady whatsoever. The man, the myth and the legend who rose to fame 22 years ago is done for good. Get used to it.
It won’t be long til Brady is back on our TVs on a regular basis, of course. He’s expected to begin his contract with FOX Sports as an NFL Analyst in the 2024 season, so we’re only talking one year with no Tom Brady in football.
All good things have to come to an end eventually, and that includes the career of Brady. We won’t forget the timeless memories he left us with, but it’s time to enjoy the new generation of superstar quarterbacks now.
So long, Tom Brady the NFL quarterback. Enjoy the golden years. We’ll try to get used to football without you.
J.J. Watt
Watt turned back the clock and recorded 12.5 sacks — his most in a season since 2018 — on a lowly Arizona Cardinals team in 2022. Watt proved he had plenty left in the tank, but he understandably retired after the season.
Watt endured atrial fibrillation early in the season and needed to have his heart shocked back into rhythm. As well, this loyal family man wants to spend time with his wife and newborn son.
The surefire Hall of Fame inductee was unquestionably the NFL’s best defensive player from 2012 to 2015, winning three Defensive Player of the Year awards while racking up a ridiculous 69 sacks during that span.
Sadly, injuries derailed the back half of Watt’s career. From 2016 to 2021, these were his numbers of games played: Three, five, 16, eight, 16, seven.
A Hall of Famer, yes. But he feels like the NFL’s equivalent to Ken Griffey Jr. What if injuries didn’t slow him down and largely define the second half of his career?
The NFL is going to miss Watt for more than what he did on the field. He was the league’s ultimate good-guy.
Purely impossible to hate. He was always going above-and-beyond to help children and families in need off the field. He helped fundraise over $37 million following the devastating effects of Hurricane Harvey.
The world needs more people like JJ Watt. This man deserves the happiest and healthiest post-football life. At least we can still enjoy watching his younger brother, TJ, over in Steel City.
A.J. Green
Watt isn’t the only notable member from the legendary 2011 NFL Draft class that also called it quits. AJ Green, Watt’s teammate of two years in Arizona, also went on his horse and rode off into the sunset.
The seven-time Pro Bowler had a solid first year for the Redbirds in 2021, recording 54 receptions for 848 yards and three touchdowns. But the borderline Hall of Famer fell back to earth last season, tallying just 24 catches for 236 yards and two touchdowns. Hardly spectacular.
So Green walks away with 727 career receptions, 10,514 yards and 70 touchdowns. Pretty impressive considering that the Georgia product missed nine games in 2018 and the entire 2019 season.
Green hadn’t been an elite receiver in a while, but he was a top-five guy at the position during the first five years of his career. Like Watt, it’s too bad Green never got to experience a deep playoff run. In fact, the latter didn’t endure a single postseason win during his playing career.
Injuries and age finally caught up to Green in 2022, but that doesn’t take away all of his accomplishments and the fact he was one of football’s premier pass-catchers from 2011 to 2017.
Brett Kern
Kern was one of the NFL’s most reliable and consistent punters from 2017 to 2021, so his release from the Tennessee Titans and subsequent early retirement both came as surprises.
An underrated part of the Titans’ renaissance under Mike Vrabel, Kern was a three-time Pro Bowl punter who also earned first-team all-pro nods in 2019 — the year the club made a stunning run to the AFC Championship Game.
Kern was cut by the Titans in 2022 and spent the final weeks of the season with the Philadelphia Eagles after they lost Arryn Siposs to injury. He averaged 40.8 yards per punt in his four games with the Eagles.
Kern walks away with a superb yards per punt average of 45.9.
Russell Okung
The two-time Pro Bowl offensive tackle hadn’t played since 2020, but he officially announced his retirement this past June.
The No. 6 selection of the 2010 NFL Draft was a mainstay on the Seattle Seahawks’ offensive line from 2010 to 2015, helping the club to a Super Bowl 48 championship in the 2013 season and to another big game appearance the following year.
Okung spent one year with the Denver Broncos in 2016 before reviving his career with the Los Angeles Chargers, where he played from 2017 to 2019. In 2020, he was traded to the Carolina Panthers in exchange for Trai Turner.
Injuries unfortunately limited Okung to 13 total game appearances over his last two seasons.
He played in seven games for Carolina in 2020 and went unsigned over the next two years before finally calling it quits.
Blake Martinez
The standout linebacker was released by the New York Giants ahead of the 2022 campaign, and the Las Vegas Raiders wound up signing him mid-season.
Martinez made two starts and appeared in four games for the Black and Silver, recording 20 combined tackles. Surprisingly, Martinez retired mid-season at the age of 28…but it turned out to be for a pretty cool reason.
It’s simply because Martinez has found tremendous success in the Pokémon trading cards business. He announced his retirement after selling an extremely rare card for a whopping $672,000.
Martinez has made several millions of dollars with his booming Pokemon cards business. It’s a super cool story, which brings us to one final message for Martinez before we move onto the next entry…
“Gotta catch ‘em all!”
Gerald McCoy
McCoy was one of football’s elite defensive linemen during his tenure with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, which spanned from 2010 to 2018.
As a Buc, McCoy was a six-time Pro Bowler who earned one first-team and a pair of second-team all-pro selections. McCoy left the franchise with 54.5 sacks, which placed him fourth on the Bucs’ career leaderboard.
In a surprise move that ended up working out for them, the Bucs released McCoy in 2019 and replaced him with Ndamukong Suh. McCoy went on to sign with their NFC South foes, the Carolina Panthers.
McCoy signed with the Dallas Cowboys in 2020, but he had to miss the entire year after suffering a ruptured quadriceps tendon. He played one game for the Raiders in 2021 but went unsigned for the 2022 season.
McCoy proceeded to announce his retirement, walking away with 59.5 career sacks, six forced fumbles, four fumble recoveries and 24 pass defenses.
Dont’a Hightower
He didn’t have eye-popping stats and certainly won’t be in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, but Hightower was the MVP of the New England Patriots’ second dynasty that won Super Bowls 49, 51 and 53.
Hightower was everything Bill Belichick looked for in a player. Incredibly high football IQ, leadership, incredible athleticism and so much more.
Don’t forget that it was Hightower who tackled Marshawn Lynch half a yard short of the end zone in Super Bowl 49, leading to Malcolm Butler’s pick on the very next play. Don’t forget his strip sack on Matt Ryan in Super Bowl 51 that helped the Patriots complete their comeback when they were on the ropes.
And don’t forget his two sacks on Jared Goff in Super Bowl 53, either.
Hightower always had a knack for showing up in big games when it mattered most. The two-time Pro Bowler had opted out of the 2020 season because of COVID-19, and he went unsigned in 2022.
So we hadn’t seen much of Hightower before he formally announced his retirement in March. Like we said, he won’t get into Canton, but he probably won’t have to buy a drink any time he visits New England again.
Mark Ingram III
The New Orleans Saints traded up to snag the Alabama product and 2009 Heisman Trophy winner with the No. 28 selection in 2011. Needless to say, NOLA got a great return on their investment.
It took Ingram a while to get going, but the three-time Pro Bowler finally broke out in year four with the Saints by rushing for 964 yards and nine touchdowns. He went on to record back-to-back 1,000-yard seasons in the 2016 and 2017 seasons, helping the Saints re-emerge as a contender in the NFC.
New Orleans went as far as the 2018 NFC Championship Game with Ingram, only losing on the atrocious NOLA No-Call. He signed with the Baltimore Ravens in 2019 and turned in another 1K rushing season, helping Lamar Jackson win MVP honors.
After two years in Baltimore, Ingram signed with the Houston Texans before getting traded back to the Saints in 2021. He would finish his career right where it started, though injuries unfortunately limited him to just 10 games in the 2022 season.
Ingram retired from football this year and is moving into a role with FOX Sports, where he’ll work on their Big Noon Kickoff program. He retires as the Saints’ all-time rushing yards and rushing TDs leader with 6,500 yards and 52, respectively.
Hats off to a marvelous career for the Heisman Trophy winner. On the bright side, we’ll be able to see this fan favorite and hilarious personality aplenty on TV…just as an analyst instead of a football player.
Devin McCourty
In one single offseason, we saw three of the key pillars from the Patriots’ second dynasty retire Brady, Hightower and McCourty.
Take either of those three men out of the equation, and the Patriots simply don’t emerge as the team of the 2010s decade.
The Patriots snagged McCourty in round one with the No. 27 selection in 2010. McCourty turned out to be everything the Patriots wanted — and more. Like Hightower, he displayed grade-A football IQ and just always seemed to be in the right place at the right time.
McCourty perfectly adopted the lifestyle of “The Patriot Way”, and was one of the very few veterans that Bill Belichick never tried to replace. Think about that. Belichick was okay moving on from Tom Brady but wanted McCourty here for his entire career.
A key cog of the Patriots’ Super Bowl 49, 51 and 53 championship teams, McCourty called it quits after the 2022 season. Incredibly, McCourty only missed five games in his 13 seasons with the Patriots — suiting up in every single contest from 2016 to 2022.
The two-time Pro Bowler retires with 35 career interceptions, 110 pass defenses, 11 forced fumbles, seven fumble recoveries and 971 combined tackles.
Also important to note: He retires with the Patriots’ secondary in good hands: Kyle Dugger, Jonathan Jones and Christian Gonzalez will make sure that this secondary doesn’t miss a beat in the post-McCourty era.
Which other notable NFL players retired here in 2023?
