RENTON — Seattle Seahawks wide receiver Doug Baldwin is considering retirement after an offseason during which the 30-year-old veteran has undergone multiple surgeries, general manager John Schneider said Friday night.
Schneider said the Seahawks are trying to respect what Baldwin wants to do and that it’s not clear what his final decision will be. But Schneider and coach Pete Carroll confirmed an earlier ESPN report that Baldwin is considering not playing again.
“Considering it, yeah. But there is a process to go through with that,” Schneider said.
Baldwin underwent surgeries on his shoulder and groin this offseason. Carroll said Baldwin also had a procedure on his knee but didn’t describe it as a surgery. Baldwin played through multiple injuries last year that started in training camp and followed him the entire season.
“He has been an extraordinary part of this program since we’ve been here and he has given us everything he has had. A great competitor, the player and all of that,” Carroll said. “And we believe in him so much and trust in him so much that wherever this goes we’re going to support him forever. He’s been a great contributor in so many ways, and not just on the team but in the community and everything else he does. He’s been awesome. We’ll see what happens and he’s working through it and we’re going to follow Doug on this one.”
Baldwin was an undrafted free agent who became a star in Seattle. He had 50 receptions for 618 yards and five touchdowns last season although he was hampered by injuries. He missed a large chunk of training camp due to a knee injury, two games in September with a separate knee injury and he played through both groin and hip issues.
Baldwin has been at the team’s facility rehabbing from his latest surgery — a sports hernia procedure earlier this month — but Schneider acknowledged the difficulty in trying to recover after the amount of repair that was needed.
“We know Doug is going to have a hard time. There is a process we need to go through with Doug,” he said.
Baldwin is a two-time Pro Bowl selection who has twice topped 1,000 yards receiving. He led the NFL with 14 touchdown catches in 2015 and a year later had a career-high 94 catches. Baldwin has started 76 of the past 77 games for the Seahawks dating to 2014 and has been the most trusted pass catcher for Russell Wilson during their time together.
Baldwin acknowledged late last season that the injuries had him contemplating his future.
“You go through the process of feeling immortal when you’re younger. I think we all go through that process,” Baldwin said in late December. “And then kind of contemplating where you take this and then things start to change and priorities outside of football change and life changes and you start to think about things in a bigger picture when football is such a small sliver on your lifetime.”
