The Redskins’ plans at safety this season were thrown for a loop on Sunday morning when Su’a Cravens came to the team’s facility to tell team president Bruce Allen that he was going to retire a year after the team took him in the second round.
That decision is on hold at the moment as Allen convinced Cravens to hold off with a plan to put him on the exempt list for at least a month so he can work out his thoughts. Coach Jay Gruden told Cravens’ teammates on Sunday that the safety has “some personal matters to tend to” while explaining his absence.
“It’s shocking, but it is what it is,” safety D.J. Swearinger said, via Mike Jones of the Washington Post. “He’s got to handle what he needs to handle, whether it’s mental, whether it’s family. We’re here to support him, but that’s something tough. I’m not in those shoes so I can’t speak on it. I’m praying for him and hope he’ll be back.”
Jones reports that it isn’t the first time that Cravens has contemplated walking away from football. He reportedly thought about it during his rookie season after getting injured late in the year. Cravens didn’t report to the team’s facility for a few days and then told teammates he was thinking about retiring, something that Jones reports also happened when he got hurt during his time at USC.
Other teammates echoed Swearinger’s sentiments while also turning their attention to the start of the regular season, which will be here next week even if Cravens remains away from the team.