Eagles linebacker Myles Jack plans to retire, as Ian Rapoport of NFL.com reports (via Twitter). Jack just signed with Philadelphia two weeks ago.
A first-round talent that fell to the second round of the 2016 draft due to knee concerns, Jack was selected by the Jaguars and quickly established himself as a fixture on quality Jacksonville defenses that featured other notable performers like Jalen Ramsey, Yannick Ngakoue, and Calais Campbell. Like Jack, Ramsey and Ngakoue were also 2016 draftees.
In his second professional campaign, Jack started all 16 regular season contests for the Jags and all three of their playoff games, helping the team come heartwrenchingly close to a Super Bowl appearance. He finished the year with 90 total tackles and a strong 71.7 overall grade from Pro Football Focus.
The following year, Jack cracked 100 tackles for the first time in his career and was again considered a solid overall performer by PFF’s metrics. However, the 2018 season was not as successful for the Jaguars as a whole, as the team finished 5-11 and well outside the playoff picture. After that season was over, Jack, Ramsey, and Ngakoue became extension-eligible for the first time, though Jack was the only member of that talented trio to see a second contract with Jacksonville.
In August 2019, Jack inked a four-year, $57MM extension to stay in Duval, though the 2019 season was a forgettable one for player and team alike. For the first time as a pro, Jack missed game action due to injury, as he was shelved for the final five contests of the regular season slate. He received an abysmal 45.9 overall grade from PFF, and the Jags finished in last place in the AFC South for the second straight year.
In terms of both surface-level stats and the advanced metrics, Jack had a bounceback effort in 2020, as he posted 118 tackles, five passes defensed, a sack, and an inteception. Unfortunately, the club finished with a 1-15 record, and after a similarly disappointing showing in 2021 under Urban Meyer‘s brief and disastrous stewardship, Jack was released.
He quickly caught on with the Steelers and recorded over 100 tackles for the third consecutive season, but those tackle numbers were not indicative of his overall effectiveness. Pittsburgh made him a cap casualty in May as part of its overhaul at the linebacker position.
Jack and fellow veteran linebacker Zach Cunningham signed with the Eagles on August 6, and both seemingly had an opportunity to see significant snaps alongside Nakobe Dean (particularly with Shaun Bradley out for the season). But as Jeff McLane of the Philadelphia Inquirer observed just yesterday, Cunningham was more impressive than Jack, who had not seen much action with the first-stringers.
Days away from his 28th birthday, Jack will hang up his cleats with over $50MM in career earnings. We at PFR congratulate the former UCLA standout on a fine career and wish him well in the next chapter of his life.
well this really sucks! backup plan in case Dean falters plus I think he could have been a valuable piece to the Eagles this year. maybe not a type of impacted cuz you’re a white head but thought it would be a pretty good signing but it looks like he’s not even going to get the week one that’s weird he’s retiring right now so that tells me either they told him he might not make the team or that he’s not going to get much playing time for him to make this decision now it sucks but best of luck to you miles
Another player that duped the Jags & good for him.
I wouldn’t say that. Jack was mostly good in Jacksonville. The combination between he and Posluszney early in Jack’s career was excellent for the Jags. The overall diminishment of the team had an effect on Jack looking lackluster overall. I don’t think that he duped the Jags. If anything, the Jags wasted a year of all of their players by hiring Meyer (and failing to keep the team focused after the Sacksonville year).
Let’s not forget that Jack made a play that SHOULD have sent the Jags to the Super Bowl to face the Eagles, if not for terrible officiating (which, as always led to zero response from the NFL). He recovered that fumble versus New England that the NFL refused to correct, which would have helped the Jags immensely in their quest to reach their first championship game.
the 2018 Blake Bortles extension was one of the most untimely poor decisions in history.
And while plenty of attention was put on Vikings “overpaying” for Kirk Cousins ,
the Jags could’ve simply taken Lamar Jackson in the 2018 Draft,
.. who went 3 picks after… You Guessed it…. no you didn’t didn’t guess it at all, it was random DT Tacen Bryan
*Taven Bryan
And Lamar in Jacksonville, as good as the pun possibilities are, would not have have had the success that he did in Baltimore. This is true of any player (not being able to predict his success in another environment), but especially true of Lamar, who had a team completely commit to him in every way. I think that we’d consider him a failure there in all likelihood as well.
idk I was always a Lamar fan when he was at Louisville
his career success has been very unsurprising to me.
I think you’d be hard pressed to find a team that doesn’t build their offense around their r1 qb
that said, extending Bortles after he proved he was not the answer, has held up longterm as a poor decision
You’re correct that it is common that teams build around their new starter. The manner in which the Ravens did so was unprecedented, is more my point. Most teams try to grab a few weapons, maybe hire a coach or coordinator, and then run a mostly conventional playbook and expect their QB to fit in after some growth. Baltimore took it to the extreme-they completely redesigned the entire offense off what Jackson did at that moment, and were very successful. Now, they’re adapting again, with the aim of allowing him more growth into a more conventional NFL skills to complement what he can do. It’s a high level of commitment. Arizona tried something similar, but without an experienced and skilled head coach to oversee the project and with a much less trustworthy quarterback. Other than that, it’s pretty rare.
I don’t think that Lamar would be bad necessarily anywhere else he went, but Baltimore really went out it’s way to give him his best chance at success. Jacksonville at that time was likely to make things extremely difficult on any QB. I don’t think that Caldwell was the dumbest GM in all actuality (he did set up the current regime for success), but other than that one Sacksonville year, the Jags were not a competitive team. Even that year, the offense was mostly complementary.
Bortles by that point had been thoroughly ruined by various coaches and bad offenses to where he wasn’t going to get much better than what he showed in that season. On a better team, perhaps he could have outgrown his propensity for turnovers or missing open receivers, but he still had enough talent to put up some numbers. My point is that Bortles at his best was still a flawed quarterback, and Jacksonville contributed heavily to handicapping his potential growth. I think most QBs at that time would have been in similar shoes.
ya my point was just that pretty much any other option would’ve worked out better than extending Bortles
and ya big test for Lamar this year without Roman running the O. they’ve given him some great weapons on the outside with OBJ & Zay.
we’ll find out what he got in the pocket, compared to when guys would be open because of coverage breakdowns after a scramble or threat of run.
my best guess is he still throws to Andrews every time, resorts back to scrambling, and OBJ cries his way out by week 10.
I can agree with that. As to Lamar, I actually consider this as much a test of Monken as of Jackson. It sounds like good things so far, but I haven’t been extremely impressed by Monken so far in past stops, and this year should tell a lot about how he handles Jackson-and maybe more importantly, his receivers. As you said, Andrews is still Jackson’s number one connection.
Looks like he’s gonna go into trade school after all
Yes, that announcement turned out to be well timed, didn’t it?
Eh. He saw the writing on the wall. They bumped him down to 3rd team in practice, then didn’t put him in the Pre-season game until a few minutes left in the 4th quarter. He knew it was over.
Solid career for a guy with banged up knees. Always rooted for him and though he maybe never reached his full potential, he’s a guy I always cheered for.
I wonder if the decision was reached while stopping in the woods on a snowy night. It could be a case of having promises to keep and Myles to go before I sleep.
*facepalm, followed by reluctant standing ovation*
Don’t let the door hit you on your way out Myles.
He wasn’t down. #dtwd