{"id":802581,"date":"2026-07-15T21:11:16","date_gmt":"2026-07-15T21:11:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/802581\/"},"modified":"2026-07-15T21:11:16","modified_gmt":"2026-07-15T21:11:16","slug":"will-grier-retires-at-age-31-after-7-nfl-seasons-with-cowboys-panthers-more","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/802581\/","title":{"rendered":"Will Grier Retires at Age 31 After 7 NFL Seasons with Cowboys, Panthers, More"},"content":{"rendered":"

Quarterback Will Grier is retiring after spending the last seven years as a backup for six different NFL organizations.<\/p>\n

The Carolina Panthers announced<\/a> the news Wednesday after signing Grier just after his 31st birthday in April.<\/p>\n

The former West Virginia star was drafted in the third round of the 2019 draft by the Panthers. He made two regular-season starts in 2019.<\/p>\n

The quarterback also spent time with the Dallas Cowboys, Cincinnati Bengals, New England Patriots, Los Angeles Chargers and Philadelphia Eagles during his NFL career.<\/p>\n

Grier began the offseason on the Cowboys’ roster before he was released<\/a> in March.<\/p>\n

His father, Chad Grier, told The Athletic’s Joseph Person<\/a> Grier considered taking a role on Brian Schottenheimer’s coaching staff before he got the chance to re-sign with the Panthers.<\/p>\n

Grier started his college career at Florida in 2015 before transferring to West Virginia for the 2017 and 2018 seasons.<\/p>\n

The quarterback led West Virginia to an 8-4 record and established himself as one of the best players in Mountaineers history during his senior 2018 campaign with the program.<\/p>\n

He finished fourth in Heisman Trophy voting, the highest<\/a> finish for a West Virginia player in 12 years, while completing 67 percent of his passes for 3,864 passing yards and 27 touchdowns.<\/p>\n

That allowed Grier to rank second in the nation in passing touchdowns per game and third in passing yards per game prior to entering the 2019 NFL draft.<\/p>\n

Grier went into his rookie season behind Kyle Allen and Cam Newton in the Panthers’ depth chart. He made his NFL regular-season debut by starting a 38-6 loss at the Indianapolis Colts in Week 16 of the 2019 season.<\/p>\n

The quarterback also started the Colts’ Week 17 loss to the New Orleans Saints before Allen closed out the game.<\/p>\n

Grier was released by the Panthers ahead of the 2021 season and spent the remainder of his NFL career as either a practice squad member or backup.<\/p>\n

He appeared in 17 total preseason games over that span for the Panthers, Cowboys and Eagles.<\/p>\n

One of his best NFL preseason performances<\/a> came ahead of the 2023 season, when he went 29-for-35 with 305 passing yards and four total touchdowns while playing the entirety of a preseason win over the Las Vegas Raiders.<\/p>\n

Grier was placed on the reserve\/retired list Wednesday in the wake of the news, according to the Panthers.<\/p>\n

His retirement leaves the Panthers with three quarterbacks on the roster, including Bryce Young, Kenny Pickett and undrafted rookie Haynes King.<\/p>\n

With Pickett slated to back up Young this fall, King could get more playing time when the Panthers’ preseason slate begins Aug. 6 with the Hall of Fame Game against the Arizona Cardinals in Canton.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Quarterback Will Grier is retiring after spending the last seven years as a backup for six different NFL…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":802582,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[559],"tags":[64,63,593,85],"class_list":["post-802581","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/802581","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=802581"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/802581\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/802582"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=802581"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=802581"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=802581"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}