The two-time Super Bowl champion Shaq Barrett is retiring from NFL

Linebacker Shaq Barrett who was twice Super Bowl champion with the Tampa Bay Bucs and the Denver Broncos, announced his retirement on Saturday.

Jul 20, 2024 08:45 PM

Jul 20, 2024, 04:45 PM ET

Linebacker Shaquil Barrett who was twice Super Bowl champion with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers as well as with the Denver Broncos, announced his retirement on Saturday.

“I’m ready to shift my full focus to my wife and kids and helping them realize there dreams,” Barrett wrote in his Instagram post. “I’ve been thinking about this for a while and the decision has never been more clear then it is right now.”

Barrett has agreed to sign a one year contract to the Miami Dolphins in March, after he was released by the Buccaneers as part of a cost-cutting plan.

The 31-year-old Barrett was a part of five seasons at Tampa with the exception of the 2020 season that culminated in winning a Super Bowl title with quarterback Tom Brady at the helm.

Barrett along with his loved ones were hit by an untimely loss in the month of April 2023, when his two-year-old daughter Arrayah died in his family’s swimming pool. Barrett returned to the pool at the start of the season in 2023 and recorded 4.5 bags and 52 total tackles, which included 33 individual tackles.

An undrafted free-agent from Colorado State in 2015, Barrett has 59 career sacks across nine seasons for the Bucs as well as the Broncos along and won the first Super Bowl title in 2015.

He dominated the NFL by recording a record-setting 19.5 sacks in 2019 the first year he played for Tampa Bay. Barrett had sacks of double-digits only one other season: 2021, with a total of 10.

After the release of Emmanuel Ogbah and losing Andrew Van Ginkel to the market for free agency and Andrew Van Ginkel to free agency, the Dolphins hired Barrett to add experienced depth to their outside linebackers ‘ room. The team also placed the linebackers Jaelan Phillips and Bradley Chubb on the physically and mentally unable to perform schedule prior to beginning of the training camp on July 23. This set the way for Barrett to take on significant roles until the time they return.

After Barrett’s retirement Barrett’s retirement, newcomers Chop Robinson and Mo Kamara are the current team’s two most healthy edge rushers. Veteran Cameron Goode was included on the PUP list, along with Phillips along with Phillips and Chubb.

Marcel Louis-Jacques of ESPN has was a contributor to this report.