“Don’t Do it”: Shannon Sharpe and Chad Johnson Advise Puka Nacua Against Retiring by 30

For every Tom Brady and George Blanda, there’s a Josh Rosen and JaMarcus Russell in the NFL. Not every player can have a 20-year career. Notably, an average NFL career barely lasts three seasons.

Puka Nacua is about to embark on his third year in the league. The soon-to-be 24-year-old wideout already has a Pro Bowl appearance and second-team All-Pro honor on his resume. He’s set to have a career closer to that of Brady than Rosen. But apparently, that’s not what he wants. Earlier this week on the Join The Lobby podcast, Nacua revealed he would like to retire when he turns 30.

Nacua’s cited reasons for this desire are admirable. However, Shannon Sharpe and Chad Johnson chided him for them on the Nightcap podcast. Their criticisms focused more on Nacua’s worry about injuries than his stated intention to retire early. Sharpe told Nacua to “not think like that” with his firm “don’t do it” remark. Meanwhile, Johnson, focused on a nutritional change Nacua made last offseason.

“You won’t have to worry about no injuries if you go back on our diet… I’m your nutritionist. You know what you came in eating when you had that historic rookie season… then all of a sudden you change it up you know in offseason and you got nicked up a little bit… if it’s not broke, don’t fix it,” Ocho explained.

“Our diet” is a reference to McDonald’s, which Nacua reportedly cut out of his palate last April. When Johnson originally learned of the news, he predicted Nacua’s “astronomical numbers” would fall in 2024.

Johnson, to a degree, turned out to be right. Nacua actually averaged slightly more yards per game (90.0) in 2024 than 2023 (87.4). However, he missed six games due to injury and averaged 1.7 fewer yards per reception (12.5) than he did as a rookie (14.2).

Shannon Sharpe and Chad Johnson discuss Julio Jones

The advice for Nacua to drop McDonald’s came from former teammate Cooper Kupp, who missed 10 games due to injury since 2023. Johnson, who has previously claimed to have eaten McDonald’s every day during his career, missed only 10 games in 11 seasons. These facts, in the context of Johnson’s rant, are more correlation than causation. But Johnson may argue the opposite.

One thing Johnson isn’t arguing, though, is Nacua’s classification of former wide receiver Julio Jones. During his Join The Lobby appearance, Nacua remarked that Jones was his personal GOAT wide receiver. Nacua described Jones as the “perfect mixture of size and speed.” Nacua also shouted out Jones’ tremendous route-running ability.

Meanwhile, Sharpe and Johnson, naturally, debated Nacua’s case for Jones. Johnson said Jones “was a good” candidate. And Sharpe decided to elaborate on Nacua’s point about Jones’ route-running.

“You’re looking at a guy who’s 6-foot-3, 225 lbs., dropping his hips on that dig, on that comeback. The speed out, the over, the skinny. He could do it all,” Shannon pointed out.

In his decade-long Atlanta Falcons tenure, Jones was borderline unstoppable. He made seven Pro Bowls, picked up two first-team All-Pro nods and three second-team All-Pro selections. He averaged more than 100 receiving yards per game five times, the most in NFL history. Jones was also the quickest player to reach 10,o00 career receiving yards, doing so in 11 fewer contests than Calvin Johnson.

Had Jones retired after his Atlanta days, he’d have averaged 95.5 yards per game. Only Justin Jefferson (96.5) has more than that in NFL history. Even when Jones’ disappointing non-Falcons years are included, he still ranks fifth all-time in receiving yards per game (82.5).

Jones, 36, has not retired from the NFL. However, he did not play in the 2024-25 campaign. He currently ranks 16th all-time in receiving yards (13,703).