Former Arizona Cardinals safety Tony Jefferson has announced he will be coming out of retirement and returning to the NFL next season.
The news was first reported by NFL insider Jordan Schultz, who wrote on X:
“Source: Former Ravens star safety Tony Jefferson is coming out of retirement and plans to play this upcoming season.
“Jefferson has stayed in shape, has been training, and wants to play again. He intends to start talking to teams in the near future after spending last season with Baltimore as a scouting intern.”
It was later confirmed by Jefferson himself.
The 32-year-old Jefferson has been out of the league since the 2022 season in which he only played nine games with the New York Giants due to a foot injury.
The Cardinals signed Jefferson as an undrafted free agent out of Oklahoma in 2013.
In his four years in the Valley, Jefferson only missed one game, but only started more than eight games in his final year in Arizona in 2016. He recorded 277 tackles (20 for loss), two interceptions and five sacks in 63 games with the Cardinals.
The Baltimore Ravens saw Jefferson’s potential and signed him to a four-year, $34 million deal after 2016 season.
Jefferson played and started the next 30 games for Baltimore over the next two seasons. However, in 2019, he suffered a torn ACL after only five games and was released that offseason.
The next time Jefferson was healthy was in 2021, when he signed with the San Francisco 49ers practice squad for the season and then back to the Ravens practice squad on Jan. 9, 2022.
He spent the 2022 season in New York, and then officially retired on May 25. 2023 before becoming a scout in Baltimore.
Jefferson has played in 113 games total (67 starts) and logged 492 tackles (34 for loss), 9.5 sacks and four interceptions.
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