Fletcher Cox knew it was time.
The Eagles' 2023 season crashed and burned, but the veteran defensive tackle still produced five sacks and was able to generate pressure at a regular rate within the trenches. There was still gas in the tank, but he knew not that much more. Football's physical toll was becoming greater and greater, especially after that 17th game got added a couple of years ago, and the process of recovering from week to week was only taking longer.
And once he started to question all of it, Cox told the Rich Eisen Show on Monday, that's when he knew. It was time to retire.
"It was just some weeks I would come home from games just doing the process of trying to get prepared to go play another game on Sunday," Cox told the show. "We all know it's a long season, right? We get physically beat up and sometimes I found myself asking myself 'Why?' And I always told myself that whenever I feel that way, I know it's time.
"I enjoyed it. I still feel like I played at a really high level last year, even with the ups and downs and missing some games and missing some time."
"It's been a really good, long, successful 12 years at a high level," Cox said just prior. "So I figured it was time."
Cox, 33, hung up his cleats with 70 sacks, an All-Pro nomination, six Pro Bowl nods, a massive role in the push to Philadelphia's first-ever Super Bowl title in 2017, and the increasingly rare designation of having been a career Eagle.
He'll go down as one of the Eagles' greatest defensive players ever, and while he said that there were friends, family, and people within the Eagles' building who tried to argue that he should play for just a bit longer, he wanted to go out knowing he was still able to to his expectations, rather than coming to the realization that he couldn't anymore.
"A few people were trying," Cox said. "They said 'Why? You're still playing at a really high level. I think you can get two more years out of this game.' I was like 'Yeah, but then again when it comes to Week 10-11, when it comes to grind time and your body is going through the same stuff you went through the year before,' I didn't want to be that guy.
"Could I play? Yes. But it was one of those things where it was time to call it."
Cox told Eisen that the way this past Eagles season ended didn't factor into his decision to retire. As for what triggered that implosion in the final month, Cox said he still isn't sure what happened, but denied that there was something wrong behind the scenes. If there was, he said, he would have addressed it himself as one of the team leaders.
"I still can't [wrap] my head around what went on because our team had so much talent," Cox said. "It was so special, we were so close, and for us to end it that way was not the way that, obviously, the city wanted that season to end, especially with what happened to us the season before, and even the coaches, the support staff, and the organization."
As for where the Eagles go next without him – Jason Kelce, too – Cox endorsed Nick Sirianni once again as the right coach for the team, while pointing out that the remaining core four vets Lane Johnson and Brandon Graham (for one more year), along with franchise quarterback Jalen Hurts, are still there to steer the ship among the players.
And as for retirement life, Cox told Eisen he'll have a lot more time now to catch up with family and work on his farm in North Texas.
His decision on football is final he responded to the thought of a team calling him up midway through next season. There's no going back.
MORE: What will the Eagles' D-line, salary cap look like without Fletcher Cox?
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