Linebacker Who Played Final Season With Buccaneers Announces Retirement

This NFL linebacker announced his retirement on Thursday after playing his final two NFL games with the Bucs.

Miami Dolphins linebacker Anthony Walker Jr. (6) runs onto the field before the game against the Jacksonville Jaguars | Sam Navarro-Imagn Images

Lavonte David's retirement from football this offseason was certainly the biggest retirement in the Tampa Bay Buccaneers' linebacker room, but as it turns out, it wasn't the only one.

One of Tampa Bay's linebackers from last season, Anthony Walker Jr., officially announced his retirement on Thursday. Walker played for the Indianapolis Colts, the Cleveland Browns and the Miami Dolphins before coming to Tampa Bay and playing two games with the Bucs at the end of the year. Walker thanked the Buccaneers in his retirement statement, and he walks away from the game at age 30.

Anthony Walker played last two games with Buccaneers

Tampa Bay Buccaneers linebacker Anthony Walker Jr. (3) works out at One Buc Place. | Kim Klement Neitzel-Imagn Images

Walker's time in Tampa Bay was a strange one. He was initially signed in the offseason with the intent to potentially compete with linebacker SirVocea Dennis play alongside David. Things were going well during minicamp, but he suffered a knee injury that landed him on the Physically Unable to Perform list (PUP) for the entirety of training camp. The Bucs released him with a non-football injury designation, but they expected him to come right back to the team's practice squad — but he didn't/

Instead, he went to the practice squad of the team he was previously a part of, the Indianapolis Colts. He stayed there for most of the year in 2025 until December, when the Bucs signed him off the Colts' practice squad to come back to Tampa Bay. Walker played in two games at the end of the year for the Bucs, netting one defensive snap and 14 special teams snaps.

Walker almost certainly wasn't in Tampa Bay's future plans, so it is no great loss for the team itself now that he is retiring. But the Buccaneers still desperately need an inside linebacker to play alongside new acquisition Alex Anzalone, and they will look elsewhere in free agency and in the NFL Draft to make that happen.

Walker knew David from their hometown of Miami and considered him a mentor. Now, both are retiring in the same offseason, and both after playing their last games with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

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