It’s been nearly two years since edge rusher Jason Pierre-Paul has appeared in an NFL game, but he said on Tuesday that retirement was never on his mind while he was unsigned.
Pierre-Paul signed to the Buccaneers’ practice squad and told reporters at a press conference that it was “not once in my head that I’m not going to play football again” during his time away from the game. Pierre-Paul said he would have tried to play in 2026 if nothing came up this year, but “the opportunity presented itself” to return to the team he helped to a Super Bowl title in the 2020 season.
Pierre-Paul said that his physical readiness to play matches his desire to get back on the field.
“I feel good,” Pierre-Paul said. “As far as the training, and I’ve been doing a lot of training with my personal trainer — he don’t stop, he trains every day. I’m like, ‘Yo, in football you get a break.’ He’s doing the best job of it and we kept it going and I think he got me in the best shape ± I won’t say in my whole entire career, but damn near. I’ve seen the results, running around the lake and running sprinters and running drills, I was able to kill the bad drills out there. I think I killed it and I just think staying in shape was one of the main keys and just not giving up.”
The Bucs play on Thursday and it seems unlikely that Pierre-Paul will be jumping into a major role right away but a good showing at practice should provide him with an opportunity to show that he can still get after the quarterback.
