5. Dwight Freeney, DL, free agent
Dwight Freeney was only a few days away from retirement when Bruce Arians and the Arizona Cardinals came calling last season, and his love of the game kept him going. Now once again a free agent who finds himself lingering on the open market, Freeney is again forced to ponder life after football.
At the start of the offseason, Freeney was unwilling to commit either way. He said he’d take a few months to consider his options and then decide whether to hang it up after 15 long seasons.
Ultimately, the 37-year-old has determined he’s not quite ready to walk away just yet.
The problem for Freeney, as it was a year ago, will be finding a team. There’s not many in the market for a defensive end in his late-30s, but there’s a certain quality of leadership that Freeney can bring to a locker-room. And so long as he’s used properly as a situational pass rusher, there is still something left in the tank. He did have three sacks last season.
Either way, it’s clear retirement is lingering in the back of Freeney’s mind and should he be unable to find a team by the start of the regular season, it’s unlikely he’ll want to sit around as he did initially in 2016.
4. Mario Williams, DL, free agent
Things did not go particularly well for Mario Williams in either Buffalo or Miami, and late-season injury issues in 2016 forced him to address the topic of retirement. But despite those two things and now finding himself without a team, Williams says he has no plans to walk away from the game.
“No matter what, right now, I don’t want to bail out on that,” Williams said in late December if injuries would force him to retire. “I’m not going to do that.”
Like some of the other veteran defensive ends on this list, the 32-year-old Williams has been reduced to a situational pass rusher, but when healthy, he’s capable of making an impact in that role. Still, with injuries taking their toll in each of the last two seasons, teams may view Williams as a man who’s breaking down.
Will Williams receive another opportunity in the NFL? He hasn’t really drawn much interest this offseason, but as the saying goes, a team can never have too many pass rushers. In the end, Williams may get one final opportunity to play the game he loves, but retirement should be a serious consideration moving forward.
3. Reggie Bush, RB, free agent
Just prior to the start of last season, Reggie Bush scoffed at the notion of retirement. Despite being greatly limited due to a few injury-plagued seasons, Bush felt he could return in 2016 and prove to the world (and maybe even to himself) that he still had some gas left in the tank.
By the time the 2016 season had ended, Bush did make NFL history. Unfortunately, it was not the sort of history he wanted to be a part of.
Despite appearing in 12 games for the Buffalo Bills, Bush became the first running back in league history to finish with negative rushing yards on more than 10 carries. He finished the year with -3 yards and one touchdown.
It was a difficult pill for Bush to swallow, but it wasn’t enough to push him over the edge. At least not yet.
“We’ll see what happens next year. Obviously I still want to play,” Bush said in late December. “But we’ll see what teams are talking about. It’s got to be the right situation, the right fit for me and I’ll just take it from there.”
Although Bush insists he hasn’t lost a step, he hasn’t received a whole lot of interest. And whether he likes it or not, it may be time to start considering a post-NFL career.
2. Chris Johnson, RB, free agent
After being shot in the shoulder in 2015, Chris Johnson contemplated retirement. Ultimately, he decided against it and returned to football as a member of the Arizona Cardinals.
Johnson would put up solid numbers for the Cardinals that year, but late-season injuries ended things prematurely, and then came David Johnson. The youngster lit the world on fire with his incredible play and has since taken over the starting job in Arizona.
Chris did stick around for another year with the Cardinals, but again, injuries plagued him and limited him to only four games in 2016. But with big career milestones up ahead, the 31-year-old plans to press forward if another team will have him.
That all comes with a catch, however. Johnson isn’t interested in sitting on the bench — he wants to play, and ideally, he wants to be a starter.
“I feel fresh,” Johnson told ESPN in March. “I don’t want to go nowhere where I’m just sitting there, just sitting on the bench. I want to be a starter. If not a starter, I definitely want to be in a situation where I can have a role and be involved.”
It’s hard for any top-end athlete to accept their own demise, but time waits for no man. Johnson may feel sharp, but the fact that he remains unsigned says 32 NFL teams aren’t quite buying that. And although he’d like to chase some of those career milestones — he’s less than 500 yards away from 10,000 — it’s not ultimately up to him.
1. Darrelle Revis, DB, free agent
Darrelle Revis was once considered the best cornerback in the game of football. However, his decline has been swift, turbulent and dramatic.
Revis has acknowledged his body is “breaking down” and some of his closest confidants have even said anonymously that he no longer loves the game of football. And then, shortly before being released by the New York Jets, Revis was arrested and charged with nine felonies stemming from an assault. The charges were dropped.
As things currently sit, the 31-year-old Revis is a free agent who has drawn very little interest. There are conflicting reports about his desire to play in 2017, and some of his friends within football have even publicly called for him to step away from the game.
What Revis ultimately plans to do is anyone’s guess. He’s been wildly unpredictable for years. In fact, the only sort of consistency he’s displayed in recent seasons has been a rapid on-field decline. It got so bad a season ago that he actually became a bit of a punchline.
Whatever Revis’ decision on his future turns out to be, the reality is he should be considering retirement. He’s a future Hall of Famer and shouldn’t allow his legacy to be defined by a few horrible years at the very end.
