Todd Archer is an NFL reporter at ESPN and covers the Dallas Cowboys. Archer has covered the NFL since 1997 and Dallas since 2003. He joined ESPN in 2010.
FRISCO, Texas — Tyron Smith was 20 years old when he was drafted in the first round by the Dallas Cowboys in 2011. Now 34, Smith retired as a Cowboy on Wednesday, signing a ceremonial contract to make it official after spending last season with the New York Jets.
Injuries to his back, neck, knee and ankle had finally caught up to him.
“After this past year and over the years of injuries and things like that, just kinda felt like it was the right time to hang it up,” Smith said. “I don’t want to be that guy down the line to where I’m struggling, and I want to be healthy for my kids … The decision came and it came easy. I realized how much I put into this NFL, and I felt proud of what I did.”
“There was no question I was going to retire a Cowboy,” Tyron Smith said Wednesday after signing a ceremonial contract to retire with the franchise that selected him in the first round of the 2011 draft. AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez
Smith first had a conversation with owner and general manager Jerry Jones about ending his career as a Cowboy when nine-time Pro Bowler Zack Martin announced his retirement in February.
“There was no question I was going to retire a Cowboy,” said Smith, who made the Pro Bowl eight times in his time with the Cowboys.
And there was no question Jones wanted that to happen.
“It was like losing a family member when he went to the Jets. Really was,” Jones said. “And I couldn’t talk to him. I couldn’t have small talk. We had some great times in his career about things that you could talk personal about … I had a tough time talking picking up that phone when he left us. So it was with great pleasure that I put that old ‘Jones,’ on this contract today that will be the last one he signs in the NFL.”
Jamison Hensley is a reporter covering the Baltimore Ravens for ESPN. Jamison joined ESPN in 2011, covering the AFC North before focusing exclusively on the Ravens beginning in 2013. Jamison won the National Sports Media Association Maryland Sportswriter of the Year award in 2018, and he authored a book titled: Flying High: Stories of the Baltimore Ravens. He was the Ravens beat writer for the Baltimore Sun from 2000-2011.
OWINGS MILLS, Md. — Baltimore Ravens general manager Eric DeCosta was noncommittal Tuesday when asked if he expected tight end Mark Andrews to remain with the team.
“I never know what’s going to happen,” DeCosta said at the Ravens’ predraft news conference. “And I would never want to say this or that. But I can tell you this: Mark Andrews is a warrior. He’s played his butt off for us.”
Andrews, 29, is entering the final year of his four-year, $56 million contract and is coming off one of the most frustrating seasons of his career. He averaged 39.6 receiving yards per game last season, which was the worst since his 2018 rookie season.
The low point for Andrews came during Baltimore’s 27-25 AFC divisional-round playoff loss in Buffalo, where he dropped a 2-point conversion that would have tied the game with 1:33 remaining. All of this has led to speculation as to whether Baltimore would be open to trading Andrews during the draft.
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Kalyn Kahler is a senior NFL writer at ESPN. Kalyn reports on a range of NFL topics. She reported about the influence of coaching agents on NFL hiring and found out what current and former Cowboys players really think about the tour groups of fans that roam about The Star every day. Before joining ESPN in July of 2024, Kalyn wrote for The Athletic, Defector, Bleacher Report and Sports Illustrated. She began her career at Sports Illustrated as NFL columnist Peter King’s assistant. She is a graduate of Northwestern University, where she was a varsity cheerleader. In her free time, Kalyn takes Spanish classes and teaches Irish dance. You can reach out to Kalyn via email.
BOULDER, Colo. — As Shedeur Sanders left the podium after his news conference at Colorado’s pro day, this year known as the “WE AIN’T HARD 2 FIND Showcase 2025,” he was greeted by Denver Broncos head coach Sean Payton, who gave him the kind of hug suggesting they had known each other for years.
“Last time I saw you, you were just a young pup!” Payton said, as three different videographers swarmed to document their interaction.
Sanders first met Payton as a kid because of the connection to his dad, Hall of Famer Deion “Coach Prime” Sanders. Shedeur has known NFL owners and coaches — Payton was one of three head coaches among a group of around 80 league personnel and 150 media members who descended upon Boulder for the showcase. The league knows Shedeur, who is projected as a top-10 pick and the second quarterback chosen on April 24. And yet it doesn’t.
Like most draft prospects, his game has been picked apart. Scouts and football observers have said Shedeur is accurate but holds onto the ball too long. He retreats into the backfield and takes unnecessary risks. He’s a solid decision-maker but pats the ball before each throw. His athleticism is good, not great. The football critiques are standard. The rest is anything but.
As a group of around 80 league personnel and 150 media members looked on during Colorado’s pro day on April 4, Shedeur Sanders performed on the field, but he’s also been analyzed for his confidence and fame as Deion’s son. AP Photo/David Zalubowski
Because of Shedeur’s upbringing inside his dad’s circle of famous football friends, and his own personal success in the new NIL culture that includes sponsorship deals and national advertising campaigns, he enters the NFL with a perspective and profile different from any quarterback prospect before him.
Which means his confident personality — a trait he learned and inherited from his dad and model/actress/reality TV star mom, Pilar Sanders — and the cameras that follow him have also been questioned. He’ll enter the league with a level of stardom that gives some evaluators discomfort, especially when compared to his tape and his track record.
“I can’t think of a more difficult quarterback case study, to try and come to a conclusion whether or not I believe he’s going to succeed to the level he’ll get drafted,” a veteran NFL scout told ESPN.
Josh Weinfuss is a staff writer who covers the Arizona Cardinals and the NFL at ESPN. Josh has covered the Cardinals since 2012, joining ESPN in 2013. He is a member of the Pro Football Writers of America and a graduate of Indiana University.
TEMPE, Ariz. — While acknowledging his 10-year tenure with the Arizona Cardinals ended acrimoniously in 2020, Patrick Peterson said Monday it was a “no-brainer” to retire with the franchise.
Peterson, 34, was back in Arizona’s headquarters Monday to officially announce the end of his 13-year career that began as the fifth-overall pick in 2011.
“My career is here, it lives here,” Peterson said. So, it was a no-brainer for me to come back here to retire where it all started.”
“I’m announcing that I am retiring a Cardinal officially.” pic.twitter.com/1rw3UJsaQk
— Arizona Cardinals (@AZCardinals) April 14, 2025
With his wife, two daughters, mother, father, closest friends and former teammates in attendance, Peterson watched a highlight video before taking the stage with owner Michael Bidwill in the team meeting room. With each sitting on high stools, Peterson thanked Bidwill, his former teammates, mentors, the equipment staff, the video staff and other members of the Cardinals organization.
Future Hall of Famer Larry Fitzgerald was in the front row, as was recently re-signed Cardinal Calais Campbell and former Cardinals safety Tony Jefferson. Also in attendance were former teammates Jay Feely, Drew Stanton, Adrian Wilson, Andre Roberts, Dennis Gardeck and Budda Baker. Current Cardinals Trey McBride, Jalen Thompson and Garrett Williams were also in attendance.
“You guys kept me going each and every day,” Peterson said. “You guys kept me going. You guys lit that fire in me and made it so, so joyful to come to work each and every day.”
“There was a lot of things said. It wasn’t the greatest departure, but at the end of the day, this is where my legacy is. This is where my legacy started.”