{"id":851005,"date":"2026-04-03T08:41:30","date_gmt":"2026-04-03T08:41:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/851005\/"},"modified":"2026-04-03T08:41:30","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T08:41:30","slug":"former-dolphins-lb-anthony-walker-jr-announces-retirement-from-nfl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/851005\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Dolphins LB Anthony Walker Jr. announces retirement from NFL"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Updated April 2, 2026, 1:29 p.m. ET<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">While the first wave of free agency has passed by, many players around the league are deciding whether or not they can or want to continue their careers, and among those players are several former <a href=\"\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" data-t-l=\":b|e|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\">Miami Dolphins.<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">On Thursday, one of them, linebacker Anthony Walker Jr., announced his retirement from the NFL on social media while thanking all of his former coaches, teammates and support staff members.<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"gnt_em_ig_bl\" href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/DWoxFb_kaym\/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" aria-label=\"view Instagram post: \"><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Walker, 30, spent the 2024 season with the <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/sportsdata.usatoday.com\/football\/nfl\/teams\/miami-dolphins\/345\" data-autotag=\"22ef43a4-dc5a-43ce-87cd-912a7e348a81\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" data-t-l=\":b|e|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\">Dolphins<\/a>, appearing in 14 games and starting eight while recording 68 tackles, two passes defensed, one interception and one sack.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">The linebacker played collegiately at Northwestern from 2013-16, where he earned All-Big Ten honors twice and All-American honors once.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">The Indianapolis Colts took him in the fifth round (No. 161 overall) of the 2017 NFL draft. He spent four years in Indianapolis, three with the Cleveland Browns and one with Miami before splitting the 2025 season between Indianapolis again and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.<\/p>\n<p>Expert NFL picks: <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" data-t-l=\":body nav (nfl)|e|auto spike click:6|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_sp_a\" href=\"https:\/\/sportsdata.usatoday.com\/football\/nfl\/picks\">Exclusive betting insights only at USA TODAY.<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">More Dolphins: <a href=\"http:\/\/dolphinswire.usatoday.com\/story\/sports\/nfl\/dolphins\/2026\/04\/02\/jeff-hafley-discloses-true-feelings-about-new-dolphins-qb-malik-willis\/89432434007\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\" data-t-l=\":b|e|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\">Jeff Hafley discloses true feelings about new Dolphins QB Malik Willis<\/a><\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Updated April 2, 2026, 1:29 p.m. ET While the first wave of free agency has passed by, many&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":851006,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2049],"tags":[95878,217,7,216,251,2087,6,95947,95948,95882,116372,98105,95951,95896,95888,95899,95906,96177,95883,95881],"class_list":{"0":"post-851005","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-miami-dolphins","8":"tag-accessfree","9":"tag-dolphins","10":"tag-football","11":"tag-miami","12":"tag-miami-dolphins","13":"tag-miamidolphins","14":"tag-nfl","15":"tag-sstssportsnfldolphins","16":"tag-sstsndolphins","17":"tag-tagamerican-football","18":"tag-taganthony-walker-jr","19":"tag-tagmalik-willis","20":"tag-tagmiami-dolphins","21":"tag-tagnational-sports","22":"tag-tagnfl","23":"tag-tagoverall-neutral","24":"tag-tagoverall-positive","25":"tag-tagsmg-breaking-wire","26":"tag-tagsports-news","27":"tag-typestory"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116339885894255599","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/851005","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=851005"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/851005\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/851006"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=851005"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=851005"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=851005"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}