Two days after he was released by the Seattle Seahawks, defensive end Marcus Smith is leaning toward retirement, according to NFL Network's Ian Rapoport.
This comes just four years after he came into the NFL as a first-round draft pick of the Philadelphia Eagles, but it may have been in the works for a while. Rapoport noted earlier this week that Seattle parted ways with Smith because of "personal reasons," and he added Monday that Smith was already "not fully committed to playing in 2018."
Still, retirement would mark an early end to the career of the once-promising defensive end, who just turned 26 this March.
The AAC's Defensive Player of the Year at Louisville, he was taken 26th overall by the Eagles in the 2014 NFL Draft. As an outside linebacker in then-coach Chip Kelly's 3-4 scheme, Smith floundered in limited appearances, recording zero statistics in eight games as a rookie and then totaling just 4.0 sacks through 2016. Philadelphia declined his fifth-year option before releasing him a year early anyway, and Smith spent his fourth NFL season with Seattle, tying a career high with 2.5 sacks on a line that was without injured starter Cliff Avril.
The subject of much debate in Philadelphia, where Kelly and personnel chief Howie Roseman swapped responsibility for taking Smith so early in the draft, the veteran defensive end has yet to make his first NFL start.
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