Former Cowboys star receiver Michael Gallup suddenly retires at 28

Michael Gallup didn’t have one more season in him.

The veteran wide receiver surprisingly retired Tuesday, just months after joining the Raiders on a reported one-year contract worth up to $3 million with the expectation of competing for the No. 3 receiver job, per ESPN.

The 28-year-old scored 21 touchdowns in his career, which spanned six seasons with the Cowboys from 2018-23 after being selected in the third round of the 2018 draft.

Gallup posted several photos on his Instagram Story of people complimenting him on his career.

This retirement news comes as a surprise since it seemed the veteran had his eyes set on a potential bounce-back season with the Raiders after participating in OTAs and minicamp, according to ESPN.

Instead, the former Colorado State star will now have only officially played for the Cowboys.

Once of the game’s young, promising receivers, he never returned to form after he tore his ACL during the 2021 season.

Gallup tallied 1,107 yards in his sophomore year in 2019 and produced a solid third season in 2020, before suffering a calf injury in Week 1 of the 2021 season and then tearing his ACL in Week 17.

Despite the injury, the Cowboys rewarded Gallup with a five-year deal with a base of $57.5 million, per Spotrac, but their optimism wasn’t warranted.

Gallup produced his then-lowest receiving yards in a season in the 2022 campaign with 424 while finding the end zone just four times, and followed with a career-worst 418 yards last season.

He tallied less than 10 receiving yards in five of his final six games last season and did not reach the 100-yard mark in any regular-season game in his final two campaigns.

Gallup did register 103 yards in the Cowboys’ playoff loss to the Packers last year.

Following the injury, Gallup averaged 2.4 catches for 28.5 yards per game over the last two seasons. He averaged 3.4 catches for 53.4 yards per game in his first three seasons.

Gallup finished his career with 266 catches for 3,744 yards along with 21 touchdowns.