Entering the NFL as a seventh-round pick, or the 248th overall in the 2016 NFL Draft, offensive lineman Austin Blythe made it further than millions of others who have attempted to go pro. At 6-foot-2, 280 pounds, it’s not like the Williamson, Iowa native was born to play football.
Yet, he managed to catch the eye of someone at the Iowa Hawkeyes’ program, where he became a four-year starter, playing in a whopping 52 games in the Big Ten. Again, this effort did not go unnoticed, as he was named a finalist for the Rimington Award, an honor given to the nation’s top center in college football.
While Blythe didn’t win, he was again on the football scouting radar. His time at Iowa even earned him an invite to the NFL Scouting Combine in what would be the biggest job interview of his football life. Blythe went through all the drills, finishing with a positional best 4.53 second 20-yard shuttle time. He also performed 29 reps at 225 pounds on the bench press.
Who knows whether it was his college film, impressing during the interview process, or his above-average athleticism at the combine that caught the eye of the Indianapolis Colts, but whatever Blythe did, it worked. As mentioned, the Colts took a late-round flyer on the sixth-last player to be selected in 2016.
Once again, Blythe went to work, appearing in eight games as a rookie, even starting one. But he was bounced from the roster over the offseason. This was when the Los Angeles Rams took a chance on the young interior offensive lineman.
Blythe appeared in all 16 games in his first season with the Rams, his second in the NFL, and became a full-time starter the next year. He would start a total of 48 games with the Rams, including five in the playoffs from 2018-20.
He then latched on with the Kansas City Chiefs but only appeared in four games in 2021 before signing a one-year contract with the Seattle Seahawks, where he started all 17 games this past season.
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Austin Blythe makes retirement official
But now, Blythe is calling it quits, hanging up his cleats after seven seasons, 92 games, and 66 starts. While he never won a ring, he did get to start in the Ram’s Super Bowl LII loss in 2018.
Capping a career that was far from glamorous, but still very successful in the grand scheme, Blythe posted a long thank you retirement post to his Instagram account on Tuesday, making matters official.
“The last 7 years have been nothing short of amazing. For a short, unathletic, undersized kid from Iowa, I’ve played a lot of football, met countless coaches and teammates that I can call friends, and made enough memories for myself and my family to last a lifetime. I am so grateful, and extremely blessed, to have played the game for any amount of time, let alone 7 years.”
Austin Blythe’s retirement announcement
In the end, Blythe walks away having made $13.1 million in his NFL career, and perhaps most importantly, he’s healthy and entering retirement at the age of 30. Who knows what his future holds from here?
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