confirmed the decision<\/a> by McGary, 31. McGary\u2019s agent, Collin Roberts, announced the retirement on social media on Wednesday.<\/p>\nMcGary, who attended Fife High School in Washington state, was the No. 31 overall draft pick by the Falcons in 2019. He played in 93 games, including 92 starts, in six seasons.<\/p>\n
McGary was regarded as an elite run blocker and began his career protecting quarterback Matt Ryan, who is the team\u2019s new president of football.<\/p>\n
\u201cI truly enjoyed my time playing alongside Kaleb,\u201d Ryan said in a statement released by the Falcons. \u201cHe was an outstanding teammate and had a tremendous career as a Falcon. We are grateful for the impact he made on this organization, and we wish him nothing but the best in retirement.\u201d<\/p>\n
McGary\u2019s retirement came as the Falcons opened voluntary offseason workouts with new coach Kevin Stefanski.<\/p>\n
McGary was carted off the practice field with the injury on Aug. 20 last season and was placed on injured reserve. He had been expected to protect the blind side of left-handed quarterback Michael Penix Jr.<\/p>\n
Penix\u2019s status for the start of the 2026 season is uncertain as he recovers from a torn ACL, leaving newcomer Tua Tagovailoa in the spotlight at quarterback.<\/p>\n
McGary\u2019s retirement could make right tackle a position of emphasis for Atlanta in the NFL draft and free agency as the Falcons seek protection for the tandem of left-handed quarterbacks.<\/p>\n
McShay: \u2018Everyone\u2019s sleeping on\u2019 UW Huskies RB Coleman in NFL Draft<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ATLANTA (AP) \u2014 Atlanta Falcons right tackle and former UW Huskies standout Kaleb McGary is retiring after missing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":313580,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2074],"tags":[223,254,2554,224,7,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-861757","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-atlanta-falcons","8":"tag-atlanta","9":"tag-atlanta-falcons","10":"tag-atlantafalcons","11":"tag-falcons","12":"tag-football","13":"tag-nfl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116371579472040995","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/861757","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=861757"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/861757\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/313580"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=861757"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=861757"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=861757"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}