DeMarcus Lawrence said he plans to retire after this season, turning his second year with the Seahawks into the final stop of a 13th NFL season that has already outlasted most careers. He put it simply in remarks to Jori Epstein: this will be my last year.
The timing matters because Lawrence is not speaking about some distant finish line. He is in the middle of a season that follows a bounce-back year for the Seahawks, and his decision gives the club a clear end date for a veteran who still mattered on the field. He is also tied to a three-year, $32.5 million contract, with $5 million of his $8.15 million paragraph 5 figure already locked in and the rest set to become guaranteed just before Week 1 because of his vested-vet status.
That contract came after Seattle landed him at what was effectively a discount, a reflection of how much the market had to account for the Lisfranc injury that ended his 2024 season before the midpoint. The injury cut short a year that might have strengthened his leverage, and it left the Seahawks able to add him on terms that fit a veteran trying to keep playing without pretending the body does not keep score.
Lawrence had even considered retirement after the Seahawks’ Super Bowl LX-winning campaign, then chose to come back for another season in Seattle. That is the part that gives this announcement its edge. He was already close enough to the finish to imagine stopping once the trophy was won, but one more run made sense then, and now he has decided that one more run will also be the last.
The Cowboys were still preparing to retain Micah Parsons when Lawrence was linked to the Seahawks, a reminder that his move was always part of a wider roster calculus in Dallas and Seattle rather than a simple farewell tour. What comes next is straightforward: Lawrence plays out the 2026 season, and unless he changes his mind, the league will be watching a veteran’s last year in real time.
