30 NFL stars who could retire after the 2024 season

30. Ezekiel Elliott, Dallas Cowboys

They say you can’t go home again. Ezekiel Elliott proved how wrong that is this season. The star running back was let go last offseason and spent one year with the hapless New England Patriots. He was one small bright spot on a useless offense led by Mac Jones. This offseason, as running backs were playing musical chairs, it just felt right that Elliott would go back to Dallas.

What we didn’t expect was that this would be the only move Dallas would make in the backfield. Honestly, Dallas has had a bizarre offseason. Both CeeDee Lamb and Micah Parsons can and should be extended. Dak Prescott seems pretty content walking into this season without an extension, which would make him a free agent in 2025. This offense has a lot of questions, and now it appears that Elliott is the starter in the backfield. 

It’s hard to predict when a starter will hang up his cleats. This is especially true for running backs who don’t get the payday pretty much any other position gets. Elliott did make his money, but he might want to keep it moving. We’ve seen players like Le’Veon Bell, Melvin Gordon, and many others who were once stars at the position, but they accepted depth roles in the middle of the season. Still, we see Elliott taking a different approach. 

We just laid out 30 different players who could retire at the end of the season, but there will always be surprises. Andrew Luck taught us that. Luke Kuechley made it known a football player can retire at any time. Going back a few decades, Barry Sanders' retirement sent shockwaves through the league. Who do you think might be the next star player to shockingly retire?