{"id":22202,"date":"2025-07-25T22:56:07","date_gmt":"2025-07-25T22:56:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/22202\/"},"modified":"2025-07-25T22:56:07","modified_gmt":"2025-07-25T22:56:07","slug":"falcons-signing-former-pro-bowl-receiver-who-had-contemplated-retiring-per-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/22202\/","title":{"rendered":"Falcons signing former Pro Bowl receiver who had contemplated retiring, per report"},"content":{"rendered":"

After contemplating retirement, former Pro Bowl receiver DJ\u00a0Chark<\/a>\u00a0is signing with the Atlanta Falcons<\/a>, according to NFL Media<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Chark, who will turn 29 in September, had recently acknowledged that retirement was an option this offseason, citing the challenges associated with possibly uprooting his family for a fifth consecutive year.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“It will have to be something that makes sense, from a family perspective and also from an Xs and Os perspective,” Chark recently told<\/a> SportsCasting’s Kyle Odegard. “Getting up and going to any team just for the excitement — I’ll always love the game, but at this point, putting myself and my family in a great position is what’s ideal for me.”<\/p>\n

A Louisiana native, Chark said that the Dallas Cowboys<\/a>, Houston Texans<\/a> or New Orleans Saints<\/a> would be ideal teams for him from a geographical standpoint. It appears, however, that Atlanta is also an acceptable location for Chark, who will join a Falcons offense that may be on the precipice of becoming one of the NFL’s best<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The 61st overall pick in the 2018 NFL Draft<\/a>, Chark was named to the Pro Bowl after eclipsing 1,000 receiving yards in 2019 as a member of the Jacksonville Jaguars<\/a>. But he never reached that level of success again during his NFL<\/a> career.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Chark had a solid 2020 campaign, but several injuries limited him to just four games in 2021. He signed with the Detroit Lions<\/a> in 2022, and despite putting up decent numbers (30 receptions for 502 yards and three touchdowns), he continued to deal with injuries and was not re-signed during the following offseason. Chark then signed a one-year deal with the Carolina Panthers<\/a>, were he also was not re-signed after one year despite catching five touchdowns and averaging 15 yards per catch.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Injuries continued to plague Chark during his most recent\u00a0NFL<\/a>\u00a0stop, which was last season as a member of the\u00a0Los Angeles Chargers<\/a>. Hampered by an injured hip, Chark didn’t make his season debut until Nov. 2. While the season was largely a bust, Chark did catch a touchdown pass during the team’s Week 18 win over the\u00a0Las Vegas Raiders<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

While he is no longer a No. 1 option, the 6-foot-3, 200-pound Chark can still provide value to an NFL as a red zone threat while providing quality depth. In Atlanta, he’ll get a chance to add to what is already an impressive group of skill players that includes quarterback Michael Penix Jr.<\/a>, running back Bijan Robinson<\/a>, tight end Kyle Pitts<\/a> and wideout Drake London<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After contemplating retirement, former Pro Bowl receiver DJ\u00a0Chark\u00a0is signing with the Atlanta Falcons, according to NFL Media.\u00a0 Chark,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":22203,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[559],"tags":[1276,64,63,5358,22416,1257,20799,1234,3055,22415,5367,1255,1237,3033,22417,19984,1250,3052,5346,1249,593,7512,22419,85,22418],"class_list":["post-22202","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-atlanta-falcons","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-bijan-robinson","tag-brandin-cooks","tag-carolina-panthers","tag-chris-olave","tag-dallas-cowboys","tag-detroit-lions","tag-dj-chark","tag-drake-london","tag-houston-texans","tag-jacksonville-jaguars","tag-jayden-higgins","tag-jaylin-noel","tag-kyle-pitts","tag-las-vegas-raiders","tag-los-angeles-chargers","tag-michael-penix-jr","tag-new-orleans-saints","tag-nfl","tag-pro-bowl","tag-rashid-shaheed","tag-sports","tag-tank-dell"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22202","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22202"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22202\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22203"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22202"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22202"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22202"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}