Former Arizona Cardinals cornerback retiring from the NFL
By Adam Patrick
After announcing his retirement from the NFL on Thursday, the Arizona Cardinals ended up being the final team Johnathan Joseph played for during his football career.
During the second quarter of a Week 13 matchup against the Los Angeles Rams last season, Arizona Cardinals cornerback Johnathan Joseph was forced to leave the game with what was described as a stinger.
Turns out, Joseph’s injury was a little more severe than a typical stinger. The veteran corner ended up being placed on injured reserve and he didn’t appear in another game for the Cardinals during the rest of the season.
In fact, that contest against the Rams will now go down as Joseph‘s last action in the NFL after the former Arizona corner announced his retirement from the league on Thursday.
Stint with Arizona Cardinals didn’t go as planned for Johnathan Joseph
When the Cardinals added Joseph to their roster last November, the hope was that he could help them reach the playoffs for the first time since 2015.
But then he suffered that stinger in Week 13 and he only managed to appear in a total of four games for Arizona. Would the Cardinals have had a better chance at making the playoffs with Joseph out on the field? Who knows, but his veteran experience certainly wouldn’t have hurt.
Joseph first entered the league way back in 2006 when the Cincinnati Bengals selected him in the first round of the draft out of South Carolina.
He remained with the Bengals for five seasons before signing with the Houston Texans in 2011. Joseph earned a Pro Bowl selection in each of his first two years with the Texans and he managed to remain with the franchise until 2020.
He wound up getting a one-year deal from the Tennesse Titans during the 2020 offseason. But his tenure with the Titans was cut short after only eight games with the team. After Tennessee let him go is when he landed in Arizona.
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Joseph is still the Texans’ all-time leader in career interceptions, career interceptions returned for touchdowns, and career pass breakups.