Jason Kelce is going to go down as one of the greatest Philadelphia Eagles players of all time, and arguably the greatest player at his position in league history. And now it looks like the veteran center is calling it a career. In the aftermath of Philly’s NFC wild-card loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Monday night, Kelce told teammates in the postgame locker room that he is retiring, according to ESPN.
Retirement has been on the mind of Kelce over the last few seasons, but seemed to hang on to try and win what would’ve been his second Super Bowl title with the franchise. However, his NFL story comes to a close after a 32-9 loss in Tampa, which capped off a late-season collapse by the Eagles, who lost six of their last seven games after a 10-1 start.
Indications that this may have been Kelce’s final game in the NFL came in the closing seconds of the loss to the Bucs. The 36-year-old was emotional on the sideline and this exchange with Eagles offensive line coach Jeff Stoutland may have said it all. (Kelce declined to speak with reporters after the game.)
“I think it’s been natural the last three seasons for that for me,” Kelce said Friday. “Whenever you’re older in your career, you never know when that’s going to be.
“I try to remind guys and my dad has told me this from the moment I started playing football — you step off the curb one day and that could be the end of your career. So you try to approach every game with that mindset, but obviously the closer and the older you get to that being a realization, puts it out in front maybe a little bit more.”
“But obviously that’s not the main thing. The main thing is going out there and battling with each of the guys in this locker room.”
Kelce still had an excellent season regardless of how the Eagles played down the stretch. He allowed just one sack and 12 pressures on the year, with a pressure rate per dropback of 1.9%. This coming off a career year, allowing zero sacks, eight pressures, and a 1.3% pressure rate allowed per dropback.
Kelce was selected as a first-team All-Pro for the sixth time this season, becoming the only center since the merger to earn six first-team All-Pro selections and win a Super Bowl title. Kelce is a first-team All-Pro at his position for the sixth time in the last seven seasons, just the fifth center in NFL history with that many All-Pro selections.
The other four (Jim Otto, Bulldog Turner, Dermotti Dawson, Jim Ringo) are in the Hall of Fame. Of the 54 players in NFL history that have earned six or more first-team All-Pro selections, all of them are in the Hall of Fame (Aaron Donald, Zack Martin, and Bobby Wagner are still active).
Soon enough, Kelce will be next as a surefire gold jacket candidate, likely even on the first ballot.