Andrus Peat calls it a career after a decade in the trenches

Andrus Peat announced his retirement on Friday, closing the book on an 11-year career that started as a first-round pick and ended without a team ever putting his name back on a roster. Jordan Schultz broke the news that Peat, a 3x Pro Bowl offensive lineman, is done.

The Saints took Peat 13th overall out of Stanford in 2015, betting on a versatile tackle-turned-guard who could anchor an offensive line for a decade. That bet mostly paid off. Peat settled in at left guard and became a fixture for New Orleans, making 3 straight Pro Bowls from 2018 to 2020 while the Saints ran off 4 consecutive NFC South titles behind Drew Brees and that Sean Payton offensive line.

Peat's run in New Orleans wasn't perfectly clean, he battled injuries plenty of years, but when healthy he was one of the more reliable interior linemen in the league for a franchise that prided itself on protecting the quarterback. When his contract with the Saints ended after the 2023 season, he hit free agency for the first time in his career at 30.

From there it was a tour, one season with the Raiders, then one with the Steelers, before a concussion in December cut his final campaign short. Peat went unsigned heading into the 2026 season, and rather than keep chasing a roster spot, he made it official. On Instagram he wrote, "11 years in the league, I gave it everything I had. I may be walking away from football, but not from the lessons it taught me."

It's the kind of retirement that won't make many headlines outside New Orleans, but for Saints fans it's a real bookend. Peat was one of the last links to that late-2010s Saints era that felt like a Super Bowl was always one bounce away. Now he exits with 106 starts in 132 games, 3 Pro Bowl nods, and a spot on one of the better offensive lines of his generation.