Written by Marc Sessler at NFL.com
Less than a week after Arian Foster waved farewell to the NFL, another former Texans luminary is calling it quits.
Wide receiver Andre Johnson informed the Titans of his plans to retire Monday, the team announced.
Currently in Tennessee, the 35-year-old Johnson spent last season with the Colts after 12 sensational campaigns with the Texans, who made him the third overall pick of the 2003 NFL Draft out of the University of Miami.
The most important and accomplished player in Texans history, Johnson finishes his celebrated career with a whopping 1,062 regular-season catches for 14,185 yards and 70 touchdowns.
His seven 1,000-yard campaigns are three more than Buffalo’s Andre Reed, who was inducted into the Hall of Famein 2014. Voting for the Hall is often dubious, but Johnson deserves to be seen as a plug-and-play entry for Canton.
A massive-bodied, 6-foot-3, 219-pound lead pass-catcher with the requisite speed, hand strength and physical traits to shred opposing cornerbacks, Johnson was a constant starry presence on a Texanssquad that struggled to pair him with a premier quarterback.
Following David Carr’s run in Houston, the Texans matched Johnson with the likes of Tony Banks, Dave Ragone, Sage Rosenfels, Matt Leinart, T.J. Yates and Case Keenum. Some of his best years came with a younger Matt Schaub, who tossed the ball during four of Johnson’s seven 1,000-yard seasons.
Johnson was a non-factor last season with the Colts and buried on the roster this autumn in Tennessee, with just nine catches for 85 yards and two scores — with all of it coming prior to Week 6.
Johnson returned this season to prove that he could outshine last year’s numbers with the Colts and “worked like crazy to get back with the Tennessee Titans and try to find a way into their rotation at receiver,” NFL Network Insider Ian Rapoport said Monday on NFL Network’s Good Morning Football.
The veteran, though, saw his snaps wither away and “it was time for Andre Johnson to step away — there was nothing left to prove,” Rapoport said. “It was just a matter of when he was going to do it.”
To continue reading this article, click here.
