Saints guard James Hurst has surprisingly announced his retirement.
“Every year playing this sport has been a blessing from God,” Hurst wrote on social media. “Football, and the people around it, have played a huge part in shaping me into the man I am today. Twenty-Four of my Thirty-Two years of life have been spent training for and playing this game and retiring will be a huge, yet exciting, change in my life.”
Hurst’s retirement is bad news for the Saints, both because he was projected as their starting left guard and because he was a bargain with a base salary of just $1.2 million this season. The Saints are tight against the salary cap, and losing an inexpensive starter hurts.
Originally an undrafted rookie of the Ravens out of North Carolina in 2014, Hurst spent six seasons in Baltimore and four in New Orleans. Now he’ll settle into retirement, and the Saints will hope they can find a replacement on their offensive line.