The Cardinals nearly clawed their way back from that ugly 3–14 halftime hole, only to fall just short in a 20–23 heartbreaker. There’s no shortage of fixes: Kyler Murray’s timing with Marvin Harrison Jr. is still a work in progress, and the defense leaked yards like a sieve. But if you’re hunting for a silver lining, start with Calais Campbell. The man gave it all on the field.

The Cardinals’ defensive end Calais Campbell looked every bit of his mileage after this one, shuffling out of the locker room and admitting he flat-out ran out of gas in the second half. But the dad side-kicked in right after the shift. He made his way back onto the field to scoop up his kids and play with them.

And it’s not hard to figure out why this game took it all out of him. Most guys in the ‘Not-for-long’ league spend most of their days in the trenches when they’re 39. But not Campbell. He was out there putting in more of an effort than any Cardinal out there.

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Sam Darnold looked poised all game long. The Cardinals needed a way to slow him down, and Campbell found one when he sacked the Seahawks quarterback. He’s clearly building on the strong start he has had to the season.

The DE is quietly turning back the clock. With two games already featuring two-plus sacks, he’s matched a benchmark he hadn’t hit since 2017. Four games in, he’s sitting at four sacks. That puts him on pace to flirt with his first eight-sack season since 2018. For a guy who just admitted he “ran out of gas,” that’s some vintage production from a future Hall of Famer.

The Cardinals are lucky that he chose to return this summer after racking up 52 tackles for the Dolphins last season. He signed a one-year, $5.5 million deal in the summer. And with the show he’s putting on every single week, his retirement confession gets all the more confusing.

Calais Campbell’s shocking retirement confession

The defensive end started his career at Arizona, and it seems like he wants to end it there, too. And we might not be too far from watching that happen. He very subtly confirmed that this might be his last year playing professional football. “I’d be very surprised if it wasn’t (my last year),” he said.

Given the way he’s playing, you’d never guess this might be Calais Campbell’s swan song. If it is, what a ride it’s been. His seven-yard takedown of Sam Darnold nudged his career total to 113.5 sacks, a stat line that sits alongside six Pro Bowls, 17 seasons of double-digit games, a spot on the Pro Football Hall of Fame’s 2010s All-Decade Team, and the 2019 Walter Payton Man of the Year award. Not bad for a guy who’s still making quarterbacks miserable at 39.

For Cardinals fans, it’s the definition of bittersweet. Nobody wants to watch Calais Campbell walk away, but at least he’s writing the final chapter back in Arizona red. And he’s making sure it’s not a quiet goodbye, stepping up every single week like a man on a mission.

Now it’s on the offense to match that urgency. With the talent they have, if Kyler & Co. can finally find their rhythm, this team has every tool to turn Campbell’s potential farewell tour into a legit playoff run. He deserves it.