NFL cornerback Steven Nelson retires at age 31

According to DJ Bien-Aime of ESPN on Sunday, National Football League cornerback Steven Nelson of Warner Robins, Georgia has announced his retirement at the age of 31. Nelson played nine seasons in the National Football League from 2015 to 2023. He was with the Kansas City Chiefs from 2015 to 2018, the Pittsburgh Steelers from 2019 to 2020, the Philadelphia Eagles in 2021, and the Houston Texans from 2022 to 2023.

Nelson was one of two NFL players this past week to retire at the age of 31. The other was tight end Pro Bowler Darren Waller of Landover, Maryland.

In 130 regular season games, Nelson had 456 combined tackles (374 solo tackles and 82 assisted tackles), 11 tackles for a loss, two quarterback hits, 13 interceptions for 159 yards, 78 pass deflections, two forced fumbles, four fumble recoveries, and one sack. In the postseason, Nelson had 35 combined tackles (28 solo tackles and seven assisted tackles), one pick six for 82 yards, and eight pass deflections. Interestingly, Nelson’s only National Football League touchdown came in the postseason off an interception in the Texans’s 45-14 American Football Conference Wildcard win over the Cleveland Browns on January 13. Nelson’s touchdown was for 82 yards, came with six minutes and five seconds left in the third quarter, and at the time put the Texans up 31-14. The pick six came off of Browns quarterback Joe Flacco of Audubon, New Jersey, who is now with Indianapolis.

Nelson played his college football at Oregon State. He was then drafted by the Chiefs in the 2015 National Football League Draft, and was taken in the third round, 98th overall. In addition to playing football growing up, Nelson was a high performance track star, and ran a time of 11.15 seconds in the men’s 100 metres at the 2015 NFL Combine.