Arizona Cardinals left guard Justin Pugh is back with the team for a fifth season, his 10th in the NFL. He didn’t think that was going to happen. He was preparing to retire after the 2021 season.
“I thought last year was going to be my last year,” he told reporters after practice Tuesday at minicamp. “I was preparing.”
As a result, he started cutting weight, getting all the way down to about 265 pounds. “I had gotten down pretty low this offseason, started to see a two-pack coming in,” he said.
“I thought my career (was done). I was happy with it,” he said. “I went out on my terms.”
He wasn’t happy entering last season because of the pay cut he was asked to take.
“I thought we were going to go through that battle again,” he explained. “(General manager Steve Keim and I) were able to figure it out. I said, ‘this is what it’s going to take to get me back’ and he was like ‘hey, done deal.’ So I came in and signed it. I wasn’t sure if it was going to happen.”
He took a pay cut in 2021 from more than $9 million to $5 million. Scheduled to make more than $8 million in salary in 2022, Pugh agreed to return this season for $5.5 million of fully guaranteed salary.
“Someone has to block Aaron Donald, so they needed to bring me back,” he added.
It is true. Considering the options and the money they had available this offseason, Pugh was their best option, especially considering the continuity.
He is working to put the weight back on, currently working on a 5,000 calorie-per-day diet that should get him to the roughly 285 lbs he plans on playing at.
As for retirement, it is now a year-to-year thing.
“It depends on what happens. There are different opportunities this year and we’ll go out there and give it our all and see where the chips fall. Let’s go out and win some games and the contract stuff takes care of itself.”
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