Philadelphia Eagles three-time Pro Bowl guard Brandon Brooks is retiring after 10 NFL seasons.
The 32-year-old announced his decision Wednesday, saying goodbye to Philly, where he's played since 2016.
"The past six years, I wouldn't trade for the world," Brooks said. "It didn't end the way I would have liked it, but to me, it's never about the ending, it's about the journey."
After earning three straight Pro Bowl nods from 2017-2019, injuries derailed Brooks' career. He suffered a shoulder injury that forced him to miss the 2019 postseason. In June 2020, a torn Achilles wiped out his entire season. Finally, in Week 2, 2021, Brooks suffered a pectoral strain and was placed on IR.
The persistent injuries led the stud guard to walk away after a decade.
"It's something I wrestled with since really last offseason," Brooks said. "I think in this game, although I'm a young man in the game of life, I'm older now at 32, I think my body is trying to tell me through these injuries that, can I still play? The answer is yes. But the answer also is, can I hold up? After all these injuries, I just realized that, at what point do you listen to your body? I think my body was just telling me I had to make a decision. At this point in time I think it's the right decision."
A third-round pick out of Miami (Ohio) by the Houston Texans in 2012, Brooks became a full-time starter in 2013 and shined in both the run and pass game.
He inked a five-year, $40 million deal in 2016 in Philly, where he went on to be a key cog in a dominant offensive line that helped the Eagles win their first Super Bowl.
Brooks signed a four-year, $54.2 million extension in November 2019 that at the time made him the highest-paid guard in football. Since the extension, however, injuries relegated Brooks to just nine games.
NFL Network's Mike Garafolo reported that Brooks recently signed a new contract reducing his 2022 cap number from $19.4 million to $7.1 million, with the only cash next season a $1.12 million non-guaranteed base salary. The move foreshadowed a pending retirement.
The Eagles can carry Brooks' $7.1 million cap charge past the post-June 1 deadline before officially placing him on the retired list, reducing his cap hit in 2022 to free up more space. The restructure was a parting gift from Brooks to Philly, which will have an estimated $24 million in cap space this season.
