{"id":55492,"date":"2018-12-28T09:00:36","date_gmt":"2018-12-28T14:00:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lwosonnfl.ms.lastwordonsports.com\/?p=55492"},"modified":"2018-12-28T09:00:36","modified_gmt":"2018-12-28T14:00:36","slug":"tight-end-ben-watson-announces-retirement-after-2018-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2018\/12\/28\/tight-end-ben-watson-announces-retirement-after-2018-season\/","title":{"rendered":"Tight End Ben Watson Announces Retirement After 2018 Season"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Current <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonprofootball.com\/nfl-teams\/saints\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">New Orleans Saints<\/a> tight end <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/W\/WatsBe00.htm?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Ben Watson<\/a><\/strong> is officially in the last year of his great NFL journey. The 15-year NFL veteran announced with NFL Films that he will hang up his cleats for good at the conclusion of the 2018 NFL season. Along with the Saints, Watson also played for the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonprofootball.com\/nfl-teams\/patriots\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">New England Patriots<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonprofootball.com\/nfl-teams\/browns\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Cleveland Browns<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonprofootball.com\/nfl-teams\/ravens\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Baltimore Ravens<\/a>.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">After 15 years of football, <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/BenjaminSWatson?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@BenjaminSWatson<\/a> is ready to hang up his jersey and fully enjoy his #1 job as a father of five, as he awaits his two newest additions. <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/NFLFilmsPresents?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#NFLFilmsPresents<\/a>: Ben Watson<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Saints?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@Saints<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/pXnYlXL7hB\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/pXnYlXL7hB<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; NFL Films (@NFLFilms) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/NFLFilms\/status\/1078375288302522368?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">December 27, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h1>Ben Watson Announced Retirement At End of Season<\/h1>\n<p>Despite being 38 years old, Watson is still managing to contribute to one of the best offenses in football. So far on the season, Watson has 33 receptions for 371 yards and two touchdowns while playing in all 15 games. His work as a blocker is also helping <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/K\/KamaAl00.htm?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Alvin Kamara<\/a> <\/strong>and <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/search\/search.fcgi?pid=IngrMa01,IngrMa00&amp;search=Mark+Ingram&amp;utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Mark Ingram<\/a><\/strong> lead the 10<sup>th<\/sup>-ranked rushing offense in football.<\/p>\n<p>Watson initially joined the league as the New England Patriots first-round draft pick back in 2004. While he didn\u2019t see much playing time in his rookie campaign, he managed to earn a Super Bowl ring during his first year in the league. Watson spent six years in New England, recording 167 receptions for 2,102 yards and 20 touchdowns.<\/p>\n<p>Watson departed the Patriots after the 2009 season and latched on with the Cleveland Browns. During his first year in Cleveland, Watson recorded a then-career-high 68 receptions for 763 yards and three touchdowns. Watson remained in Cleveland for two additional seasons before joining the New Orleans Saints in 2013.<\/p>\n<p>The former first-rounder spent three years in New Orleans before heading off to the Baltimore Ravens. While a preseason ACL injury cost him the 2016 season, he bounced back in 2017. Watson recorded 61 receptions for 522 yards and four touchdowns during his lone healthy campaign in Baltimore. Entering free agency again, Watson returned to the Saints for the 2018 season.<\/p>\n<p>Despite being a tight end, his career highlight likely <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=m-3HizTSybE\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">came on a tackle<\/a>. Back in the 2005 Divisional Round, Patriots quarterback <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/B\/BradTo00.htm?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Tom Brady<\/a> <\/strong>threw an interception to Denver Broncos cornerback <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/B\/BailCh00.htm?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Champ Bailey<\/a><\/strong>. Bailey took the ball out of the Broncos end zone and looked to have an easy path to the end zone. Watson, however, chased Bailey the entire length of the field and tackled him at the one-yard line, knocking the ball loose. Even though the Patriots lost that game, the play has gone down as one of the best effort plays in league history.<\/p>\n<p>Main photo:<br \/>\n<a id=\"8Krsrsy-RtJqXlxss30vlw\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/1057348734\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'8Krsrsy-RtJqXlxss30vlw',sig:'VeLsVuYFUJXUnq79RT5KtAwpsfnRdyX8BO2U31TSIEg=',w:'594px',h:'406px',items:'1057348734',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Longtime NFL tight end Ben Watson announced that 2018 will be his last professional season. Watson, age 38, is currently a member of the New Orleans Saints.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2376,"featured_media":55494,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,5,28,36],"tags":[4076,61,309,40,246],"class_list":["post-55492","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-patriots","category-saints","category-nfl-news","tag-ben-watson","tag-football","tag-new-orleans-saints","tag-nfl","tag-nfl-news"],"modified_by":"David Latham, Managing Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55492","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2376"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55492"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55492\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/55494"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55492"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55492"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55492"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}