National Football League

Connor Halliday retires before rookie minicamp

Published May. 17, 2015 2:27 a.m. ET

foxsports

By Jesse Reed

Connor Halliday’s sudden departure from the Washington Redskins was quite mysterious.

The undrafted rookie free agent out of Washington State suddenly left team facilities the night before Washington’s rookie minicamp without giving any explanation for his actions.

According to Liz Clarke of The Washington Post, the answer to the mystery is this: before he has played a snap in the NFL, Halliday retired.

Washington head coach Jay Gruden didn’t seem pleased and was terse in his statement regarding the quarterback’s decision:

“I can’t speak for the decision that he made,” Gruden said, per the team’s website. “He just chose to jump on a plane and head to the house. I haven’t had a chance to talk with him yet. He just left me a voice message, but I’m sure he had personal reasons behind it.”

Thankfully for Washington, Halliday’s departure doesn’t hurt the team in terms of a wasted draft pick. That said, there were some people around the league who thought the gunslinger had a chance to develop into a good NFL quarterback.

When asked if the development would force the team to add another quarterback at this time, Gruden didn’t provide a clear answer:

“We have three guys who are going to really fight for every rep as it is, so in a way it’s not bad to have three,” Gruden said, per Washington’s website. “We’re looking at another two guys out here today, and one more practice today, and then we’ll make a decision about whether or not we bring four to camp.”

During his tenure at Washington State, Halliday passed for 11,308 yards, completing 62.1 percent of his passes in the process and throwing 90 touchdowns. Those aren’t numbers you see every day, and they are indicative of the talent he possesses, though we will likely never see what he can do at the next level.

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