Kalil, who spent the first 12 seasons of his professional career with the Panthers, shed light on his choice Saturday.
“I just had a hard time moving on,” Kalil said, via NorthJersey.com. “I had a hard time turning the page. … Especially after coming off 2018 healthy, feeling great, feeling spry again, I just felt like I had more football.”
Kalil retired with Carolina in December and moved back to southern California, where he’s from. But the gridiron kept calling him back.
“Started living the beach life a little bit,” Kalil said. “Getting back ingrained with the community where I grew up. And March came around and I just started getting the itch again.”
Kalil, 34, signed a one-year, $8.4 million deal with the Jets. He’ll have to meet some incentives to get all that money, but the five-time Pro-Bowl player didn’t take much of a pay cut — he made $9.75 million in 2018.
New York is optimistic he can help it improve from last year’s 4-12 season. It it added a top-tier running back in Le’Veon Bell over the offseason and has a promising young quarterback in Sam Darnold.
“This was (a) unique opportunity with an unbelievable person and player,” Jets general manager Joe Douglas said. “I can’t tell you how excited I am that Ryan chose to be here.”
