According to ESPN’s Rich Cimini, New York Jets tackle D’Brickashaw Ferguson has decided to retire after playing 10 NFL seasons. Ferguson, 32, hasn’t commented publicly on his decision, but Cimini cites a source who said Ferguson “just felt it was time.”
Ferguson started all 16 games last season and is healthy—although it’s tough to say anyone who’s played 10 seasons in the NFL is completely healthy—but he had a bit of a down year in 2016 and the Jets recently asked him to take a pay cut. In December, he wrote a piece for Sports Illustrated about seeing Concussion, in which he grappled with his own decision to continue playing football despite knowing the risks of CTE.
It will be a very strange thing to see the Jets take the field without Ferguson next season, as he only missed one snap—one single snap!—during his 10 years with the team. He was on the field for 10,707 snaps during his tenure, and the one he missed was a trick play at the end of a loss to the Dolphins:
I’d say he’s earned a nice, relaxing retirement.
[ESPN]