A week before the 2021 NFL Season is to begin, we now know that five-time Pro Bowl Defensive Lineman, Jurrell Casey, will not be among the players.  Casey, 31, retired today, after a ten-year career.

Playing his college ball at USC, Casey arrived in the NFL to Tennessee as a Third Round Pick in 2011.  Casey became an immediate starter at Right Defensive Tackle, and was arguably robbed of a Pro Bowl in 2013, a year he had a career-high 10.5 Sacks.  He would finally get that first Pro Bowl in 2015, which would lead to four more in succession.

A Titan for all but his final year in football, Casey had 51.0 Sacks, all in Tennessee, and was a large part of the Titans defensive turnaround in the 2010s.

Casey, was also known for his philanthropy, and was the winner of two community service awards.  

In our most recent updated list of active players based on Hall of Fame potential, Casey was ranked at #80.  He will be eligible for the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2026.

We here at Notinhalloffame.com would like to wish Casey the best in his post-playing career.

Very few people had a rookie season like Jevon Kearse.

A First Rounder from Florida where he won the Bowl Alliance National Championship and was an SEC Defensive Player of the Year, Kearse was a beast as a rookie, winning the AP Defensive Rookie of the Year, and was also the AFC Defensive Player of the Year.  The Defensive End led the NFL in Forced Fumbles (8) and recorded 14.5 Sacks and 15 Tackles for Loss.  The sky appeared to be the limit for Kearse, but that wasn't to be.

Kearse, who was a First Team All-Pro as a rookie, was never an All=Pro again, though he was a Pro Bowler in his first three seasons, where he had double-digits in Sacks in all three years.  His production did negatively slide in those three years, and it fell when injuries took him out of 12 Games in 2002.  After a respectable 2003, Kearse left Tennessee for Philadelphia, but he would never come close to what he accomplished as a rookie.

Kearse returned to Tennessee in 2008, where he played two more seasons before retiring.  He would have 52 of his 74 Sacks as a Titan.

Ernest Givins was one of the best returners in the history of Louisville and was also a star Wide Receiver.  The Houston Oilers used their Second Round Pick to obtain him, and he would become one of the best Wide Receivers in history.

Givins had 1,062 Receiving Yards as a rookie, which was his career-high.  That isn't to say that he considerably regressed, as, over the next five seasons, he had at least 900 Yards in four of them.  A crowd favorite for his electric slide touchdown dance, Givins went to the Pro Bowl in both 1990 and 1992, where he had nine and ten Touchdowns.  He played with the Titans until 1994 and had one final year with Jacksonville.

As a Titan, Givins had 7,935 Yards with 46 Touchdowns.

A star at Syracuse, Keith Bulluck was a late First Round Pick in 2000, where he was chosen by the Titans, who had big plans for the young Linebacker.

Bulluck played primarily off of the bench in his first two years and would win the starting job at Right Linebacker in 2002.  He would regularly be among the league's top tacklers, amassing at least 127 Combined Tackles five years in a row from 2002 to 2006, and was the NFL leader in 2004 with 152.  Bulluck, who was a First Team All-Pro and Pro Bowler in 2003, would come close to joining the 20-20 club with 19 Interceptions and 18 Sacks as a Titan.

He left Tennessee in 2009, playing one final campaign in the NFL with the New York Giants.