Miami Dolphins defensive lineman Calais Campbell recently shared that if the Dolphins were to win the Super Bowl this season, he would likely decide to call it quits on his NFL career — but he left the door open while speaking on the hypothetical.
IF the #Dolphins go the distance this season… will DT @CalaisCampbell ride off into the sunset and call it a career?? 👀🏆🔊@MiamiDolphins @heykayadams #Finsup #Gofins pic.twitter.com/3MCA03IljM
— Up & Adams (@UpAndAdamsShow) August 13, 2024
“Yeah, hypothetically, I’ll probably hang it (up) — it’s easy to say I’ll hang it up right now,” Campbell said on whether he would retire from the NFL in such a scenario. “Likely, I’m gonna hang it up if that happens. I’m off in the sunset. We won a Super Bowl. Everything’s good. But I also know how much I love this game, and I’ma have some thoughts where I’m sittin’ here thinkin’ (to) myself, like, ‘Could I go and do it again? Can we go do it again? Is it possible?'”
Campbell signed with the Dolphins earlier this summer after playing for four other teams — the Arizona Cardinals, Baltimore Ravens, Jacksonville Jaguars and Atlanta Falcons — over his first 16 seasons in the pros.
He has played in the NFL ever since he was drafted by the Cardinals with the No. 50 overall pick all the way back in the 2008 NFL Draft.
There was a stretch of Campbell’s career where he was consistently one of the best players at his position in the league. From the 2014 season through the 2020 season — a seven-season stretch — Campbell earned a number of accolades, including six Pro Bowl nods.
He also finished second behind Aaron Donald in the NFL AP Defensive Player of the Year voting in the 2017 season, when he was a member of the Jaguars organization. Across 16 games played in the 2017 regular season, he totaled 14.5 sacks, 67 combined tackles, 47 solo tackles, 20 assisted tackles, 14 tackles for loss and 30 quarterback hits.
While Campbell is a bit long in the tooth at this stage of his pro career — he will turn 38 years old next month — he didn’t show his age too much during the 2023 regular season with the Falcons. He started every one of the team’s 17 contests a season ago and racked up 6.5 sacks, 56 combined tackles, 32 solo tackles, 24 assisted tackles, 10 tackles for loss and 17 quarterback hits.
Campbell will look to bolster a Miami defense that left something to be desired last season. The unit allowed opponents to score 23.0 points per game in the regular season, then the Kansas City Chiefs scored 26 points against Miami’s defense in the team’s playoff loss in January.
The veteran will have his first chance to play in a regular-season game in a Dolphins uniform in less than a month, as Miami is scheduled to kick off the 2024 campaign versus the Jaguars on Sept. 8.
