Chargers WR, Former High-10 NFL Draft Choose Mike Williams Retiring at Age 30

Los Angeles Chargers wide receiver Mike Williams has retired from the NFL at age 30. Williams, who signed a $6 million, one-year deal in mid-March to return to the Chargers for his second stint with the team, was placed on the physically unable to perform list with an undisclosed injury on Monday. Two days later, he called it quits.

His agent, Tory Dandy, told general manager Joe Ortiz on Wednesday night, hours before the Chargers became the first NFL team to open training camp Thursday.

“It’s obviously a tough situation,” quarterback Justin Herbert said. “Football, at the end of the day, is a game and there’s more to life than just football, and I’m just hoping for the best for him.”

Williams played eight seasons in the NFL, including stints with both the New York Jets and the Pittsburgh Steelers in 2024. 

The Chargers drafted Williams in the first round with the seventh overall pick in 2017. He had 330 career receptions, 5,104 receiving yards and 32 touchdown receptions over his eight-year career.

Williams’ pro debut was delayed by a back injury that caused him to miss training camp. He sat out the first six games of the regular season before seeing action. He was sidelined by a knee injury in Week 13.

In 2021, Williams and Herbert built a rapport early on, with Williams totaling six receiving touchdowns and 471 receiving yards in the team’s first five games. That set the stage for a breakout season, with Williams setting career highs in receptions (76), targets (129) and yards (1,146) while scoring nine touchdowns.

After the 2021 season, Williams signed a $60 million, three-year extension with the Chargers.

In 2022, Williams had a back fracture that kept him out of the team’s opening playoff loss to Jacksonville. The following season, Williams sustained a season-ending ACL tear in Week 3. He was released by the Chargers early last year.

Soon after, Williams signed a one-year deal with the Jets. He was later criticized by quarterback Aaron Rodgers for running the wrong route on a pass intended for him, leading to a game-clinching interception in a loss to Buffalo.

Last November, the Jets traded Williams to the Steelers for a fifth-round draft pick. He had a combined 21 receptions for 298 yards and a touchdown for both teams.

“I don’t want to say shocking, but [I’d definitely] like to have him on the market with me,” security Derwin James mentioned of the information. 

Coach Jim Harbaugh made no point out of Williams’ choice when he spoke to the media earlier Thursday.

“Mike has all the time carried out such an excellent job of simply displaying up and dealing,” Herbert mentioned. “He [has] been a wonderful chief and teammate. That is what we recognize and love essentially the most about him. It’s undoubtedly powerful to exchange a man like that. There [are] not too many guys like Mike, and we’re undoubtedly going to overlook him.”

Williams helped Clemson win the nationwide championship in 2017 after which determined to forego his senior yr to enter the draft. In 2015, he broke a bone in his neck after colliding with the objective put up as he caught a landing cross.

With Williams gone, broad receiver Tre Harris’ holdout positive aspects significance. The second-round select of Ole Miss has but to report, however Herbert isn’t frightened. “He’s carried out such an excellent job, particularly in OTAs, of creating up for that point,” Herbert mentioned. “Every time that deal will get carried out and he comes again, he’s not going to overlook a beat.”

Harbaugh additionally downplayed Harris’ absence, saying, “There’s a enterprise aspect to soccer. Him and Joe Hortiz will get that labored out. I hope it will get carried out sooner quite than later. That’s info, because the younger individuals say.”

The Chargers additionally signed sort out Ryan Nelson from the UFL.

Nelson began 22 of 28 video games for the Michigan Panthers during the last three years within the UFL, together with an look within the league’s championship sport final yr. Nelson, who’s from close by Buena Park in Orange County, performed 4 seasons at Virginia.

Reporting by The Related Press.

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