A veteran NFL offensive lineman is ending his professional football career. On Wednesday afternoon, Chase Roullier of the Washington Commanders went to Instagram to announce his retirement from the league. He spent his entire career in Washington as he was drafted by the team in the sixth round in 2017.
“It is a very difficult thing to say goodbye to something that has been a large part of my life for over two decades,” Roullier said in a statement. “I can hardly remember a time in my life that I wasn’t lacing up and putting on the pads every fall. Through all that time, I have learned some of my biggest lessons, gotten through huge heartbreaks, and had a few of my life’s greatest joys.”
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Roullier became one of the anchors on the Commanders’ offensive line, starting in 63 of 69 games during his career. He became a starting in Week 8 of his rookie season and kept the job for the majority of his career. But the 29-year-old only played in 10 games the last two seasons because of season-ending leg injuries.
“These two years have also given me a lot of time to reflect and gain clarity on my priorities in life,” Roullier said. “This decision has not been an easy one, but after lots of prayer and processing, I am confident that it is the right one.” In the caption, Roullier wrote, “Thank you to everyone who has supported me in this journey and everyone who will support me in my next chapter.”
Roullier joined Washington after having a strong career at the University of Wyoming. Before the start of the 2018 season, then-head coach Jay Gruden talked about Roullier’s being battle tested during training camp. “It’s a great test early on, especially with [Daron] Payne and Jonathan [Allen] in there, and Matt [Ioannidis] and Ziggy [Hood] and all those guys,” Gruden said, per the Washington Post. Different guy on him every time. But he’s done a good job. He’s just going to continue to get better. The more he sees, the more he is going to be confident, and the more he can make the calls like that and then adjust to them on the fly.
“He’s the quarterback of that offensive line, and he’s going to need to see all the looks, so on game day, under, over, front, jam front, whatever it is, he can spit out the calls effortlessly and be able to execute a lot smoother because of that. He’s got a great body for center, and I think he’s steadily improving to be a good starting center for this organization for a long time.”
