The man known as Megatron is hanging it up.
According to ESPN’s Adam Schefter, Detroit Lions wide receiver Calvin Johnson has notified his head coach Jim Caldwell that 2015 was his final season in the NFL. This comes after reports earlier in the month indicating that Johnson was considering retirement. On January 6th, he released a statement emphasizing that he considering all of his options at this point.
Calvin Johnson told family 2015 would be his final year and delivered same message to Jim Caldwell after season ended, sources told ESPN.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) January 31, 2016
Johnson spent all nine seasons of his NFL career with the Lions. He was drafted second overall in 2007 out of Georgia Tech and it didn’t take long before he had an impact. A year later, he led the NFL with 12 receiving touchdowns while also finishing seventh with 1,331 total yards. This despite the fact that the Lions became the first team since the 1976 Tampa Bay Buccaneers to finish a regular season with a winless record.
Three seasons later, he began a two-year stretch which was likely the highlight of his career.
In 2011, he led the league with 1,681 receiving yards while finishing second with 16 touchdown grabs. He proved a crucial part of the Lions’ first playoff appearance since 1999. Despite a 45-28 loss to the Saints in the Wild Card round, Johnson would set a Lions postseason record with 211 receiving yards in addition to adding two touchdowns.
Johnson would then sign an eight-year, $132 million extension in the offseason which contained $60 million in guaranteed money. He would certainly earn that money in 2012. Even though the Lions would stumble to a 4-12 finish that year, Megatron finished with 1,964 receiving yards, breaking Jerry Rice’s single-season record which had stood since 1995.
The 30-year-old Johnson finishes his career as one of the league’s all-time great wide receivers. In addition to holding the NFL record for most receiving yards in a season, he has the second highest total in a single game. During the 2013 season, Johnson had 329 yards receiving in a 31-30 win over the Dallas Cowboys. He also became the fastest wideout to reach 10,000 yards receiving in league history a year later against the Chicago Bears in the Lions’ traditional Thanksgiving day game.
Among the other honors he’s received during his illustrious nine-year career includes six Pro Bowl appearances while also being named first team all-Pro three times. Along with the Steelers’ Antonio Brown, he’s one of just two players in NFL history to have 5,000 or more receiving yards in a three-year span. His career stats of 11,619 receiving yards and 83 touchdown catches are both runaway franchise records for the Lions’ franchise.
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