Every single season around the NFL, there are dozens of players battling for their careers. Most of these players aren’t household names. They will never get the attention the top stars in the league receive.
For them, the NFL offers an opportunity to play two or three years before they move on to other careers.
On the flip side, every season brings a handful of well-known veterans battling for their careers.
From two embattled former playoff quarterbacks to a running back in Nashville looking to get his career back on track with his third team in as many seasons, here are five NFL veterans playing for their football lives in 2016.
1. Robert Griffin III, quarterback, Cleveland Browns
Exiled from Washington like a bad habit back in the spring, this former top-five pick and Pro Bowl performer could very well be playing for his football career in 2016.
After putting up 27 total touchdowns and just five interceptions while leading the Redskins to the NFC East title in 2012, Griffin’s career has been a disaster of near unmatched proportions ever since.
He injured his knee in a late-season game against the Baltimore Ravens before re-injuring it during that controversial playoff outing against the Seattle Seahawks. That’s the last time we saw the former Heisman winner anywhere near his old self.
In the three seasons since, RGIII has put up 20 touchdowns compared to 18 interceptions while winning just five of his 20 starts. This past season, growing tired of the divisiveness RGIII brought to the locker room, the Redskins made him a healthy inactive for the vast majority of the games.
Other issues came to the forefront in Washington as well. Teammates didn’t seem sold on him as a starter (more on that here). Meanwhile, there were rifts between Griffin III and other members of the organization, head coach Jay Gruden included.
Now after his long-awaited release from the nation’s capital, Griffin III joins a talent-stricken Browns offense as one of three guys competing for the starting job.
It’s not necessarily an ideal scenario for the embattled quarterback, especially after the Browns lost two of their three-best offensive linemen and their top pass catcher in free agency. Though, RGIII will have a capable offensive mind in Hue Jackson who is now running the ship in Cleveland.
Should the 26-year-old signal caller bounce back after three disastrous years, it will be one heck of a comeback story. If not, Griffin III will likely go down as the latest (and perhaps most surprising) first-round quarterback bust.
2. Byron Maxwell, cornerback, Miami Dolphins
Maxwell signed a six-year, $63 million contract with the Philadelphia Eagles last March. This came after he started a total of 16 games in four seasons as a member of the Legion of Boom in Seattle.
The thinking in Philly was simple. As a member of that defense, Maxwell had to be a darn good football player.
He may very well be that, but his first (and only) season with the Eagles was a downright joke. Taking on the role of a No. 1 corner, Maxwell allowed a triple-digit quarterback rating when targeted, with receivers catching over 65 percent of the passes thrown his way.
It was so bad that Philadelphia traded Maxwell to the Dolphins for pennies on the dollar, a clear way to rid itself of a huge Chip Kelly mistake.
Now tasked with replacing Brent Grimes as Miami’s top corner, Maxwell finds himself with yet another opportunity to prove he can get it done against the game’s best. He will likely find himself lined up against the likes of Brandon Marshall (who could not be happier about it) and Sammy Watkins multiple times throughout the season.
It really does seem that, much like Philadelphia, the Dolphins are somehow expecting Maxwell to play at an elite level simply because he was a part of a great defense in Seattle years back.
Gase on Byron Maxwell: He was part of one of greatest defenses in history of football… We want him to have that swagger, that confidence
— Andrew Abramson (@AbramsonFL) June 6, 2016
That’s just absurd to this one scribe. It’s not like we are talking about Richard Sherman or Earl Thomas here. Maxwell was never tasked with covering the opposing team’s top receiver in Seattle. Once he was asked to do that in Philadelphia, it was a downright disaster.
Depending on how this turns out, Maxwell could be seen as a fraud, further confirming his struggles in Philly last season. If this happens, the former Clemson standout could easily find himself jettisoned from a team after just one season for the second consecutive year.
3. Vincent Jackson, wide receiver, Tampa Bay Buccaneers
After putting up four consecutive 1,000-yard seasons, the 33-year-old Jackson saw himself tally the worst numbers since his sophomore campaign last year. Dealing with multiple injuries, Father Time caught up to this three-time Pro Bowl performer.
All said, Jackson caught just 33 passes for 543 yards and three touchdowns in 10 games. He also boasted an incredibly pedestrian 53 percent catch rate. This led to some thinking he would be released by the Buccaneers during the spring.
Now entering his 12th season in the NFL, it’s readily apparent that Jackson is no longer a top receiver in the league. He’s now taken a back seat to Mike Evans in Tampa Bay and doesn’t yet seem to have cultivated a relationship with young quarterback Jameis Winston.
Set to become a free agent following the 2016 campaign, there’s a reason to believe Jackson could find himself completely out of the league if he repeats the performance we saw last season.
It’s something that has happened to multiple veteran receivers in the past. The game passes them up as age catches up to them. Jackson’s twilight could very well be defined by this as well.
4. DeMarco Murray, running back, Tennessee Titans
After turning out a historical campaign for the Dallas Cowboys back in 2014, Murray was able to net a five-year, $40 million deal with Philadelphia in free agency. At that point, many figured the league’s reigning Offensive Player of the Year was destined for further stardom in Chip Kelly’s offense. Boy, were they wrong.
Murray responded by putting up just 702 rushing yards while averaging 3.6 yards per attempt. The level of regression was among the most shocking in recent NFL history.
In his first three games as a member of the Eagles, Murray put up 47 yards on 29 attempts. During this stretch, he put up a historical set of stats against his former team. This came on the heels of him averaging a league-best 115.3 yards per game in 2014.
While Murray himself was horrible, it’s important to note that he came from a Cowboys team that boasted the best run-blocking unit in the NFL. In Philadelphia, that simply wasn’t the case.
Consider this: Murray averaged 1.6 yards before contact per rush in 2015. For the sake of comparison, that number stood at 2.8 in Dallas back in 2014. This has many people believing that he was more a product of the Cowboys tremendous offensive line than anything else.
Now in Tennessee after one failed season with Philadelphia, Murray will be battling with reigning Heisman winner Derrick Henry for touches with the Titans.
All things equal, it’s seems to be nothing less than a matter of time before Henry takes over primary ball-carrier duties.
In a league where aging running backs are seen as a dime a dozen, there’s a chance the 28-year-old Murray could find himself as a castoff if he puts up yet another disastrous performance in 2016.
And while his new contract seems to suggest the Titans will have to employ him beyond this upcoming season, using a roster spot on a 29-year-old that simply doesn’t have what it takes any more wouldn’t make sense for the Titans in 2017.
5. Colin Kaepernick, quarterback, San Francisco 49ers
This would have seemed utterly absurd heading into the 2014 season. At that point, Kaepernick was seen as one of the most-talented young quarterbacks in the entire NFL.
He was coming off two seasons that saw him lead San Francisco to a Super Bowl appearance and a narrow defeat against Seattle in the NFC Championship game.
In the years that have followed, it’s been a downward spiral for this ultra-enigmatic quarterback and his fledgling franchise.
We’ve read the reports that he’s requested a trade. We’ve seen the articles focusing on how he’s not a leader. And we’ve watched the tape of him struggling a great deal over the past two seasons.
Now injured and still unable to take part in Chip Kelly’s first set of off-season activities as San Francisco’s head coach, Kaepernick’s career is surely at a crossroads.
If Kaepernick can’t even beat out Blaine Gabbert as the starter in an offense that will feature his skill-sets better than any he’s played in, what does that tells us about the quarterback?
If he can’t gain respect of his teammates and become a leader, what does that tell us about him being a starter in the NFL?
We already know San Francisco can get out from under Kaepernick’s deal after this season without any dead money.
Any chance of him remaining on the team will rely heavily on improving off a 2015 campaign that saw him throw six touchdowns in eight starts. Those aren’t even backup-worthy numbers right there.