Maurice Jones-Drew announces retirement: 5 things to know
MJD heads off into the sunset as one of the all-time best Jaguars.
By
Jared Dubin
•
3 min read
Maurice Jones-Drew announced his retirement on Thursday, ending his NFL career after nine seasons. He spent the first eight of those years with the Jacksonville Jaguars before signing a three-year deal with Oakland last offseason. After playing just 12 games and logging only 42 carries, Jones-Drew decided to retire rather than continue on with the Raiders or possibly see himself cut before the start of free agency.
1. The announcement
Jones-Drew made the announcement via his Twitter account.
All good things come to an end!!! pic.twitter.com/zl6EJQ5SAE
— Maurice Jones-Drew (@Jones_Drew32) March 5, 2015
Classy move shouting out his fans the world over, without whom "the league would not exist."
2. The reaction
NFL players current and former showed their respects to MJD for a great career soon after the announcement was made.
Congrats on a amazing career @Jones_Drew32. Respect as my former competitor, my former teammate, and as fellow kid from the Bay Area. #NFL
— Kirk Morrison (@kirkmorrison) March 5, 2015
@Jones_Drew32 congrats on the retirement my man. Just yesterday we was in the cali-fla all star game lol
— Terrell Thomas (@TerrellThomas24) March 5, 2015
Congrats! The best is yet to come RT @Jones_Drew32 All good things come to an end!!! pic.twitter.com/gGKgL3S1lY
— Jay Feely (@jayfeely) March 5, 2015
Congrats on a great career @Jones_Drew32 !!! Enjoyed playing with you, watching you run over ppl and those TD dances!! Respect ?
— Courtney Greene (@MrGrEeNe36) March 5, 2015
@Jones_Drew32 Amazing career homie and continued success onto your next journey #MJD
— Tarell Brown23 (@TarellBrown25) March 5, 2015
Congrats on an amazing career bro @Jones_Drew32! Now you can finally join me covering national security like we've always discussed. LOL
— Donté Stallworth (@DonteStallworth) March 5, 2015
@Jones_Drew32 congrats on a great career big dawg! Excited for what's next for ya!
— Michael Robinson (@RealMikeRob) March 5, 2015
3. The career
The Jaguars selected Jones-Drew out of UCLA with the 60th overall pick in the 2006 draft. He was the sixth running back off the board that year, following Reggie Bush, Laurence Maroney, DeAngelo Williams, Joseph Addai and LenDale White. Jones-Drew accumulated more rushing yards than any of them in his career.
In his nine seasons, MJD carried the ball 1,847 times for 8,167 yards and 68 touchdowns. He added 346 catches for another 2,944 yards and 11 scores. His 4.42 yards per carry average ranks 14th all-time among the 50 players who have recorded at least 1,800 career carries.
He finished his eight seasons with the Jags with 8,071 rushing yards, second-most in franchise history behind only Fred Taylor. His 68 rushing touchdowns with Jacksonville are the most ever by a Jaguar. He became the face of the franchise after Taylor left town, and finishes his career as one of the best players in team history.
4. The peak
Jones-Drew split carries with Taylor for the first three years of his career, but carried the load full-time in his age 24 through 26 seasons (2009-2011). He made the Pro Bowl in each of those seasons. In that three-year span, MJD led the NFL with 954 carries, finished second behind only Chris Johnson with 4,321 rushing yards (though MJD averaged an extra 1.9 yards per game), and had the sixth-most rushing touchdowns in the league with 26.
In 2011, he became one of just 49 players to ever average over 100 rushing yards per game for a full season. That year, he led the NFL with 343 carries and 1,606 rushing yards, earning himself a First-Team All-Pro nod from the Associated Press.
5. The decline
Jones-Drew's career tailed off after that 2011 season, as he never again topped 1,000 rushing yards. In fact, he totaled 363 carries for 1,313 yards in his final three years, falling almost 300 yards short of his 2011 season total on an additional 20 totes.
He missed 10 games due to injury in 2012, then came back and had a very poor season in which he averaged only 3.4 yards per carry in 2013. The Jaguars elected to let him leave via free agency, and he landed in Oakland where he was expected to split carries with Darren McFadden. Both MJD and McFadden were alternately injured and ineffective, which led to Latavious Murray emerging as the team's best runner toward the tail end of the season.
With Jones-Drew's cap hit for each of the next two seasons sitting at $2.5 million, the Raiders would probably have released him in advanced of free agency sometime in the next couple of days. MJD elected to retire instead.
