Devin McCourty won't decide on future until March

BOSTON -- With the Patriots announcing on Friday that Matthew Slater will be returning for the 2023 season, many eyes turned toward fellow veteran Devin McCourty to see if he'll once again be suiting up for work in Foxboro.

But that decision won't be coming soon.

McCourty revealed on "The Patriots Report" with Christopher Price that he doesn't anticipate really making a decision on retiring or playing until the second week of March. In the interim, McCourty will be going on vacation with his family and twin brother Jason's family, before working alongside Jason on "Good Morning Football" for a week.

"We'll start to, I think for me and my wife, decide and plan what the next year looks like," McCourty said, targeting the second week of March. "I think that's around the time when free agency will be coming up, so it'll be the right time to really start digging in and making decisions."

The 35-year-old has discussed potential retirement dating back to the end of the 2018 season, but he admitted on the podcast that this year's contemplation is different.

"Yeah man, my wife always jokes with me because this is probably the first year that I've actually thought about it. Like, usually I say -- I would say over the last two or three years I'm thinking about it," McCourty said. "But as soon as the offseason hits, I've gone right back into working out and doing what I've always done to get ready for the season."

This year, clearly, is a bit different.

McCourty said he's leaned on conversations with his brother, who retired last year, for help on considering all angles, as the finality of retirement is a weighty matter to ponder.

"It's something I've been doing since I was 10 years old," McCourty said. "So the thought of not getting ready to go, the thought of not playing in a game, even though you think about it, I don't think it ever becomes real until you do it."

McCourty added: "I look forward to next year and I see me doing different things. I also see me playing. I think that's the really hard thing about trying to decide what's best for you and your family."

McCourty has not missed a game since 2015, and he's hardly missed a snap during that time. He's never played less than 92 percent of the Patriots' defensive snaps in any of his 13 seasons, and he's taken at least 94 percent of the team's snaps every year since 2015. He's played in 205 regular-season games and 24 playoff games, including five Super Bowls with three wins.