Greenway: 'I have one more year of football in me'
Veteran linebacker Chad Greenway spoke with Phil Savage on SiriusXM NFL Radio Thursday night. Fox Sports' Alex Marvez **recapped the interview**.
The topic of retirement hung heavy in the air Thursday after Greenway's former teammate, defensive end Jared Allen, took to Twitter to **creatively announce** that he's hanging up his cleats. Greenway, however, isn't ready to leave the field just yet. And he also hopes to not leave Minnesota.
"I have one more year of football in me," Greenway [said]. "A goal of mine was to play in one place for my whole career. I want to finish here. The biggest thing is the product I'm putting on the field and continuing to do so at a high level."
Greenway agreed to a restructured contract last season and went on to play an integral role in the Vikings defense. He played all 16 regular season games in 2015, starting 12 of them. Greenway finished the season with 86 tackles (coaches' tally) and 2.5 sacks. His highlight play of the season came in Week 3, when he returned an interception 91 yards for a touchdown against the Chargers.
"I felt in 2015 I had a resurgence," Greenway said. "I also came out of last season feeling really healthy. As much as I hated it at the beginning of the season I learned to love and appreciate that role. Rather than get upset by it, I learned to embrace it and make the role my own. And honestly I had a lot of fun as a leader and captain on that team."
While Greenway told Savage that he doesn't know what the 2016 season will bring, he hopes to wear that purple and gold for one last stretch.
"I'm perfectly happy and content with the career I have had," said Greenway.
"But the reality is, I'm looking for one more time."
Greenway is currently in Duluth, taking part in the **first Polaris-Vikings Winterfest**. Greenway is just one of a number of Vikings guests participating in the weekend's festivities, including former Head Coach Bud Grant and current teammates Stefon Diggs and Jerick McKinnon.
A look at the 2015 Vikings special teams
In his final installment of a 2015 postseason wrap-up, the Star Tribune's Matt Vensel **broke down the Vikings special teams** unit and posted a few questions for the offseason.
Vensel wrote that, although Walsh's missed field goal attempt in the Jan. 10 Wild Card game against Seattle left a bitter taste on his record, the kicker saw success in 2015.
While his 87.2 percent success rate on field-goal tries during the regular season was near the middle of the pack, the 2015 season was a step in the right direction for Walsh after he was last in the league in that category in 2014.
Vensel also commented on punter Jeff Locke and the punt coverage unit, saying there were both high points and low points in the Vikings punting.
Punter Jeff Locke ranked 30th in the NFL with a net punting average of 37.8. It was the second straight season that his net average dipped. So Walsh will have company under that microscope this offseason.
But it was not all bad for the Vikings in that third phase last season. Not at all. The punt coverage team was very good and the Vikings produced big plays in the return game, both punts and kickoffs. And long snapper Kevin McDermott avoided a major miscue in his first season in Minnesota.
Vensel assessed the Vikings special teams needs in the draft as moderate.
