Walker's Road to Retirement Began with 2018 Injury

The three-time Pro Bowl tight end recovered enough to start the 2019 season but never got back to being the player he was from 2013-17.

NASHVILLE – Delanie Walker would like to say that he is that tough. That he refused to show his pain to the world. That he remained composed by choice.

The reality is that it did not hurt. His right ankle was so badly damaged in the Tennessee Titans’ 2018 opener at Miami – the nerves were torn – that he did not feel anything at all.

Had he known that it effectively was the beginning of the end of his NFL career, he might have reacted differently.

Walker formally retired from the NFL on Tuesday. The announcement came just over three years since he played his last game and with the certainty that there was no way to regain the level of play he enjoyed during seven seasons with the Tennessee Titans, a stretch that included three Pro Bowl appearances (2015-17).

“I would say my body was done with the game, but my mind wasn’t,” Walker said. “I knew I wasn’t going to be able to play. Just the issues I was having with my ankle, that prevented that.”

It happened with 3:49 to play of a Week 1 loss at Miami on Sept. 9, 2018. Walker caught a short pass over the middle and turned it into a 15-yard gain, his fourth reception of the contest. When he got tackled, though, he could not get up because his right ankle was fractured and dislocated.

The injury caused him to miss the remainder of that season, which was difficult to handle for a player who had not missed more than two games in any of the previous 11 years.

“I realized it was bad when I didn’t feel it,” Walker said. “So, I knew something was up. I couldn’t feel no pain. … I didn’t cry, I didn’t make a face. I didn’t do anything. I couldn’t feel it, literally didn’t feel anything.

“It severed my nerves, and at that point I kind of felt like, ‘This is going to be a tough one to come back from.’ But knowing me, I was that guy (thinking) that I wanted to come back early. I wanted to show the team that I worked my butt off to get back on the field. It just didn’t happen the way I wanted it to.”

Walker made it back on the field but never returned to the level of play that made him a centerpiece of the offense and a central figure in the locker room from the moment he signed with Tennessee as a free agent in 2013.

A part-time fullback, part-time tight end during seven seasons with the San Francisco 49ers from 2006-12, he set a career-high in receptions during his first season with the Titans and led the team in that regard each of the next four years. His 94 receptions in 2015 are the eighth-most by any NFL tight end over the past decade.

“I was extremely fortunate in 2016, when I came here to the Titans, that Delanie was on the football team,” general manager Jon Robinson said. “He was such a pivotal player for us offensively. He was a difference-maker, a huge matchup problem for opposing defenses.

“… There are four things that impressed me the most about Delanie. One was his work ethic. Two was his toughness. Three was his leadership. And four was his commitment and service to the community around here.”

For all that he was, Walker was not indestructible.

A promising start to the 2019 season – five receptions, two touchdowns in a Week 1 victory at Cleveland – soon faded as the ankle became an issue once again. In a Week 7 victory over the Chargers, he was on the field for just five snaps before he could go no more. It turned out to be the last time he was in uniform.

“I took a hit in Week 5, and it just never came back to where I needed to be to be able to play,” he said.

The Titans released him the following spring and despite a publicly stated desire to extend his career, no one signed him.

All told for his 14-year career, which began when the 49ers selected him in the sixth round of the 2006 draft, he caught 504 passes for 5,888 yards and 36 touchdowns. That makes him one of 19 tight ends in NFL history with at least 500 career receptions.

Officially, he retired as a Titan.

“I feel like I’d still be playing right now if I didn’t break my (ankle),” Walker said.