Washington talked 22-year-old Su’a Cravens out of retiring for now

Washington drafted Su’a Cravens in the second round of the 2016 draft, and the 22-year-old played in 11 games last season. Now, as he continues to recover from minor offseason knee surgery, Cravens is apparently considering retirement.

For the time being, the team has talked him out of ending his NFL career, according to ESPN’s Adam Schefter. Washington will place Cravens on the exempt/left squad list and he is expected to miss about a month of the season, according to the Washington Post’s Mike Jones.

Jon Gruden did not address the media after Sunday’s practice, though he was initially scheduled to.

Players told Jones and other members of the media that Gruden did address Cravens with the team, saying that Cravens has personal matters to attend to and will be out for the next month.

This isn’t the first time Cravens has considered retirement, and he discussed his plans with his teammates via a group message on Saturday. Though Cravens has decided against retirement for now, Cravens will miss about a month of time while on the non-football injury list.

Cravens was not at Sunday’s practice, according to Jones.

A transition to inside linebacker and a concussion and a biceps injury had a negative impact on Cravens’ performance during his rookie season, and that’s when the retirement talk began. His teammates weighed in on the situation after practice.

“This game tests your wits in every form and every facet of your body and mental everything,” Josh Norman said via Jones. “Because if you’re not ready to come back and then play and give it your all and your heart isn’t in it, then you’re seriously gonna go out there and get hurt. I mean like, seriously.

“Because this is no game. This is no child’s-play game.”

Cravens’ knee surgery was to repair meniscus damage, and he was expected to return to practice this week and be cleared to play in Week 1, per Jones.

Washington is likely to go with backup Deshazor Elliott as the starting strong safety until Cravens returns.

“I have the total confidence in [Everett], man,” free safety D.J. Swearinger said. “Since [Cravens] got hurt, we’ve been out there, we’ve been making great strides, we’ve been getting better and better every week, play by play, so I have full and total confidence in Deshazor.”

The second-year safety started three games for Washington in his rookie season. He finished with 34 tackles, one sack, and one interception.