Report: Andre Johnson pondering retirement

The Colts had high expectations for wide receiver Are Johnson, but after a disappointing season the potential Hall of Famer might be thinking about retirement.

According to a report by NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport, Andre Johnson is considering hanging up the cleats and riding off into the sunset.

It has long been thought that the Colts would cut Johnson in the near future. His year in Indianapolis saw him record new lows for his career. Johnson had just 41 receptions for 503 yards and four touchdowns, by far the lowest season totals of his career (when he plays a full 16 games).

Johnson signed a three-year $21 million deal with the Colts last offseason. The Colts would save $5 million against the cap by cutting Johnson before next season.

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Bringing Johnson into the Colts seemed like a perfect fit last year. The Colts had two young talented wide receivers and needed a reliable veteran (essentially to replace Reggie Wayne). But Johnson was forced to play out of position at times and coupled with injuries to Andrew Luck, the offense never took off.

Now, the Colts don’t really need that veteran with the emergence of Donte Moncrief and T.Y. Hilton heading into his fifth season. Couple that with Phillip Dorsett (and even Quan Bray), and the Colts can look at the bargain bin to fill out the receiving corps. At this point, the Colts should want any player to take snaps away from Hilton or Moncrief, and Johnson was essentially doing that last season.

Neither revelations in Rapoport’s tweet are surprising. The other being he won’t be back with the Colts in 2016 as the team retools and gets younger.

Johnson considering retirement isn’t a surprise either as he’s played 13 seasons and has a Hall of Fame level career (especially considering he rarely, if ever, had a quarterback). If he does retire he’ll be ninth all-time in receiving yards and eighth in receptions, but just behind Wayne.

We’ll have more on the official status of Johnson as the story develops in the coming weeks.