Eagles' Jason Kelce sets ballpark retirement timeline after 'awful' ending to 2023 NFL season - "It’s emotional"

Jason Kelce is still unsure about his future, but he has a general idea of how he will handle his retirement announcement.

Shortly after his Philadelphia Eagles lost 9-32 to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in last month's Wild Card Round, multiple media outlets reported that the long-serving starting center had told his teammates that he was retiring. But he has since gone on to refute the news, saying that his quotes inside the locker room had been taken out of context.

Speaking recently on "The Big Podcast" with Adam Lefkoe and former NBA superstar Shaquille O'Neal, Kelce once again reiterated that any decision on his future would come on his own terms (skip to 43:23 for the beginning of the segment):

“Still figuring it out. I think if I still want to play, I’m going to play. I think right now we’re not far enough away from the last game. It’s emotional, it’s a long season, the end of the season quite frankly, awful. So I’m just going to take some time, rest, recoup and then figure it out. I think I’ll have an answer in the next couple weeks.”

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Jason Kelce speaks up on possibly entering coaching realm

If Jason Kelce does indeed retire, what is next for him?

He could follow fellow Super Bowl-winning linemen Andrew Whitworth and Mark Schlereth to broadcasting, with reports indicating that he has met with top executives at ESPN and Fox. Pat McAfee even lobbied for the multiple-time All-Pro and Pro Bowler to land the former job in Monday's episode of his eponymous show.

However, there is another avenue that he may consider: coaching. In that same interview, Kelce outlined which coaching jobs he might entertain (begins at 28:29):

"If it was a number one school in Philadelphia, I might take it. I'm Philly right now... Cleveland Heights would be something, though. NFL, that's a big-time commit. College, no. Not interested."

Asked why he would not consider college, he explained that there were too many variables involved that would make him homesick:

"It's too much. You gotta recruit; you gotta coach. You'll never be with your family... It's still a time commitment in the NFL, but that's where financially it kind of makes sense."

New episodes of "The Big Podcast" air every Thursday.