All Time Eagles Great Ryan Kerrigan Retires From The NFL
It was a sad weekend for the Philadelphia Eagles as one of the great players in franchise history decided to hang it up. When you think of the great defensive players in franchise history, your mind automatically goes to names like Brian Dawkins, Reggie White, Chuck Bednarik, and, of course, Ryan Kerrigan. Like those greats, Kerrigan’s career has also now come to an end, with the 33 year old announcing his retirement from football this weekend. It was an emotional decision for Kerrigan, who undoubtedly was reminiscing about his days in midnight green as he mulled over his options, but ultimately he decided that it was time to hang it up for good. The good thing about retirements, though, is that it gives us a rare opportunity to look back on all of the fond memories that a player gave us during their time in Philadelphia.
Who could forget Kerrigan’s earthshaking decision to join the vaunted 2021 Eagles in free agency in hopes of potentially playing a couple of snaps as an edge rusher? It was undoubtedly one of the top 200 roster moves of the 2021 offseason, and a transaction that landed the birds the coveted “veteran past his prime that adds absolutely nothing” that they’d been looking for. There are some offseason acquisitions that don’t deliver to the level they’re expected to, but not Kerrigan. He filled up the stat sheet that season (well, not until week 5), with a whopping 3 tackles, one of which was actually a TACKLE FOR A LOSS! You don’t see those every day. I think we’ll all remember where we were when Kerrigan spent weeks 6-11 of the 2021 season not registering a single stat. The only possible explanation is that Kerrigan was such a feared defender that opposing teams must’ve been quintuple teaming him. What a player!
All good things must come to an end though, and following the 2021 season, Kerrigan and the Eagles decided to part ways. There were many tears shed that day, and I must admit that I did well up a bit knowing that I’d seen the last of Kerrigan’s non-impactful plays at Lincoln Financial Field. Again, though, retirements are a time for celebration, and it’s important that when one of the great Eagles hangs it up, we take time to show our respect. The Eagles now will have to find a way to replace those 3 tackles, as well as a couple missed reads per game, zero sacks, zero forced fumbles, zero recovered fumbles, zero QB hurries, and zero of pretty much every other stat you can think of, as they prepare for the 2022 season. But we will always remember one of the great Eagles of all time… wait, what was his name again?
*AUTHOR’S NOTE*
I literally could not find a single full-sized picture on Getty Images of Ryan Kerrigan in an Eagles jersey because he was such a non-factor, so instead, I used a picture of him eating ice cream.
