Brandon Linder, veteran center for the Jacksonville Jaguars, announced his retirement after eight seasons punctuated by injuries.
Posted at 10:51 a.m.
Linder spent more than a week considering his decision before announcing he was hanging up his cleats on Instagram, saying “this is the moment I decided to close this chapter of my life and step down from the NFL.
“I am grateful to be able to achieve my goal of retiring after spending my entire career with the Jaguars,” he wrote. Jacksonville will remain my home. I am excited to pursue new dreams and look forward to all the good things to come in the future. »
Linder and Jaguars general manager Trent Baalke met on March 16, about an hour before the start of the league’s new year. The meeting was originally scheduled to release Linder, but Baalke agreed to give the five-time team captain some time to decide whether he wanted to retire or try playing elsewhere.
Linder ultimately opted out after 88 games, all of which were starts with the Jaguars.
The Jaguars drafted him in the third round from the University of Miami in 2014. But the Floridian missed 41 games due to various injuries, including knee, shoulder, ankle and back problems. He’s missed 22 games over the past four seasons, ending two of them on the injured list.
He would be entering the final year of his contract, which included a $51.7 million five-year extension ahead of the 2017 season. The team paid him more than $44 million over an eight-year term, or about $500,000 for every game he actually played.