The New Orleans Saints have already lost Ja’Lynn Polk before he ever got a chance to suit up for them.
According to reports, the 24-year-old receiver has decided to retire from the NFL, and the Saints have placed him on the reserve/retired list. That closes the book on a career that never got off the ground the way the New England Patriots hoped when they took him in the second round of the 2024 draft.
Polk’s lone NFL season came in 2024, when he caught 12 passes on 33 targets for 87 yards and two touchdowns in Jerod Mayo’s first Patriots team. He then missed the entire 2025 season after shoulder surgery. While he was on injured reserve, New England sent him to New Orleans in a day-three pick swap, but now his 2026 season is gone too - because his career appears to be over.
There were a couple of small bright spots early on. Polk scored his first career touchdown against the Seahawks in Week 2 of the 2024 season, then posted his best numbers two weeks later against the San Francisco 49ers, finishing with three catches for 30 yards, both career highs.
Even with those moments, the overall production was extremely thin. Polk retires as the least productive receiver drafted in the second round since practice time limitations were put into place in the 2011 collective bargaining agreement. His 87 career receiving yards are well short of the 228 yards posted by Dee Eskridge, the second least productive second-round receiver drafted since 2011.
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