After the San Francisco 49ers fell just short of a Super Bowl LVII appearance, it didn’t take long for veteran offensive tackle Trent Williams to contemplate his remaining future in the NFL.
It also didn’t take long for 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan to push back on retirement rumors that surfaced following Williams’ conversation with Eric Branch of the San Francisco Chronicle on Tuesday.
“I didn’t read his words as that’s a big thing for him,” Shanahan said, via 49ersWebzone.com. Shanahan said he knows Trent Williams loves football and that “I know it’s very hard at his age, in any situation to do what you do for that long and come up short. . . . I’d be really surprised if Trent wasn’t fired up in a few weeks.”
Obviously, Shanahan’s words hold a lot of weight, but so does what Williams said in the media earlier this week. In discussing his future, Williams didn’t hold back, as he allowed the possibility of retirement to be a topic of conversation, even though he’s clearly still in his prime.
“It’s a long season,” said Williams via Branch. “And having two long seasons back-to-back, it does get pretty grueling for a 34-year-old guy like myself. I’ll be 35 when the 2023 season starts. You do kind of think about what’s life like after football. I’ve done this every year of my life since the second grade.”
“You do get to that age, especially at the end the year like this, as exhausting as it was. And still not getting quite where you want to be. I get it. You get to that age. But, honestly, I’m just taking it one day at time, and we’ll see how that goes going forward.”
Williams still has time to make his decision. While Shanahan expressed confidence that he’ll be back in 2023, retirement shouldn’t be ruled out just yet.
[49ers Webzone, San Francisco Chronicle]
