Devin McCourty on thinking about retirement: Nah

For most of us, retiring sounds like living the dream. If you’re Devin McCourty, though, retirement is like the God of Death. You know, the one we say “not today” to.

Being that Devin’s contract only goes through the 2019 NFL season, which, coincidentally, is the same season when #32 turns 32, he’s been in more than a few talks this offseason about either getting an extension to ease up on his $13,435,000.00 cap hit, or potentially hanging the cleats up for good.

According to the venerable scribe and cancer’s-ass-kicker Jeff Howe of The Athletic, though, D-Mac is all in on 2019 and has given retirement after this year approximately zero thoughts at all.

“I haven’t,” McCourty told Howe. “I’ve been having a lot of fun this year. I haven’t thought about next year or anything else. I’m just trying to see how much better I can get in year 10 and see how good I can be still at, in a couple weeks, (when I turn) 32 years old and still playing football and trying to embrace that.”

You know how everyone says the average NFL career is 2.5 years or whatever that stat is? D-Mac was shooting for being a 10-year guy this whole time, to probably nobody’s surprise.

“It was always a goal – once I got into the league – to play 10 years, so it means a lot,” said McCourty. “The average (NFL career) is three (years), and a lot of guys who get to stick around are like, man, it’d be awesome to play 10 years. To be in my 10th year and still feel pretty healthy, to go out here and compete, just being able to do that, obviously I don’t think about it every day. But to come in and be like, man, this is my 10th training camp, I take pride in that and just trying to keep it going.”

About that whole “being healthy” thing: Devin’s not a large guy, by defensive back standards (5’10, 195lbs), and yet he’s been an absolute hoss when it comes to making sure he’s on the field all the time. Check this “Games Started” column out:

If math and/or Pro Football Reference aren’t your thing, here’s the deal: McCourty’s missed five starts since he was drafted. In 2010. More fun with numbers: that shakes out to missing 0.56 games per season. The Rutgers man might be made of adamantium.

Also fun: Devin played 96.26% of the Pats’ defensive snaps in 2018 in addition to 40.62% of the special teams snaps, so if you remember that part from the Wes Welker episode of A Football Life where Wes was like, I’ll play offense, defense, and special teams just to get on the field, yeah, D-Mac is basically that. An 8-time team captain that still plays special teams. And, as the latest episodes of the NFL Top 100 nicely pointed out, he’s also the man with the plan that gets everyone lined up on defense, and has been for the better part of this past decade when Bill moved him from cornerback to safety in the first place.

As for now, Devin’s on to 2019.