Calais Campbell announces he will return for his 16th career season

On Sunday morning, while participating in a segment on NFL Gameday Morning, Baltimore Ravens’ defensive end Calais Campbell announced he will be returning for his 16th NFL season in 2023.

Campbell, 36, is putting off retirement for a second straight offseason. Last year, much like today, he announced his plans to return for another year on Super Bowl Sunday. This comes just a couple days after Campbell won the NFL’s Art Rooney Sportsmanship Award.

In his 15th career season in 2022, Campbell proved yet again that he has plenty left in the tank. Despite missing three full games due to injury, the veteran compiled 36 combined tackles, 5.5 sacks, 14 quarterback hits and forced two fumbles.

His sacks, quarterback hits and forced fumble numbers were the highest since his final season with the Jacksonville Jaguars in 2019. Campbell played over 60% of the Ravens’ defensive snaps for a second straight season, too, and was unsurprisingly a stout run defender again.

Campbell is under contract with the Ravens in 2023 but carries a salary cap hit of just under $9.5 million. It’s unlikely the Ravens will want to absorb that high of a figure next season, so the team could look to restructure his deal, or release and re-sign him on a lower cap hit.

It’s also not out of the realm of possibility that Campbell plays with a different ball club next season. However, he previously expressed his interest in returning to Baltimore in his locker room exit interview, and the Ravens will surely want to have him back in the fold.

Campbell has been an extremely valuable piece for the Ravens over the past three seasons both on and off the field.