{"id":850583,"date":"2026-04-03T03:23:15","date_gmt":"2026-04-03T03:23:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/850583\/"},"modified":"2026-04-03T03:23:15","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T03:23:15","slug":"former-browns-defensive-leader-retires-from-the-nfl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/850583\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Browns defensive leader retires from the NFL"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">While we await official word that OL Joel Bitonio is retiring, former Cleveland linebacker Anthony Walker Jr. has decided to call it a career, officially. Despite playing for four teams, Walker\u2019s retirement announcement graphic included just his photos with the Indianapolis Colts and Browns:<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Walker spent four years with the Colts, three years in Cleveland, and one season each with the Miami Dolphins and Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Last year, Walker only played in two contests and now retires before his 31st birthday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">In three seasons with the Browns, Walker provided important leadership for the team, but injuries limited his time on the field. From 2021 through 2023, Walker played in 28 games with 27 starts, including missing all but three games due to injury in 2022.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">In his nine-year career, the Northwestern alum had 581 tackles, 26 tackles for loss, 21 passes defended, nine quarterback hits, 5.5 sacks, four interceptions, four fumble recoveries, and two forced fumbles.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">What do you remember most about AWalk\u2019s time in Cleveland?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"While we await official word that OL Joel Bitonio is retiring, former Cleveland linebacker Anthony Walker Jr. has&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":850584,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2026],"tags":[60181,7],"class_list":{"0":"post-850583","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-football","8":"tag-cleveland-browns-history","9":"tag-football"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116338635958403042","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/850583","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=850583"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/850583\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/850584"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=850583"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=850583"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=850583"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}