Goodwin, 36, made the announcement following his ninth annual PEGA Foundation All-Star Sports Camp.
He was a free agent, having not been asked back by Dallas this offseason after the team handed his No. 29 jersey to a rookie.
The Career He Built
Goodwin occupied a spot on the 53-man roster despite playing almost exclusively on special teams, logging 2,211 special teams snaps across his Dallas tenure while playing just 62 snaps on defense and one on offense.
He appeared in 108 games with the Cowboys, making him the franchise's second-longest-tenured player behind only quarterback Dak Prescott.
🚨🚨 Former #Cowboys DB and core special teamer C.J. Goodwin announced his retirement from the NFL after 10 seasons. #dallascowboys
— NFL Rumors (@nflrums) June 29, 2026
In 2021, he became the first player in franchise history to lead the team in special teams tackles for three consecutive seasons, and he was named one of the team's captains entering the 2025 season.
Across his full career, he played 136 games with one start, recording 94 tackles, two passes defended, and two forced fumbles.
The Remarkable Path
Goodwin's road to the NFL was unlike almost anyone else's.
He played just one season of high school football and originally went to Bethany College to play basketball.
He picked up football again only after transferring to Fairmont State, and then to California University of Pennsylvania, entering the 2014 NFL Draft as an overlooked Division II prospect.
He went undrafted.
The break came through Pro Football Hall of Fame cornerback Mel Blount, whose farm Goodwin worked on during college and whose son attended high school with Goodwin.
Goodwin asked Blount to help him get a tryout with the Pittsburgh Steelers, the team Blount starred for across 14 seasons.
When the #Cowboys signed CJ Goodwin in 2018 I thought it was just for depth on the roster.
— Brandon Loree (@Brandoniswrite) June 28, 2026
Then he carved out an 8 year career in Dallas as a reliable special teams ace.
This will be my favorite play. Congrats on retirement and fulfilling your dream 🫡#DallasCowboys pic.twitter.com/h6SQPrboAI
"I looked at him, I thought he was crazy," Blount recalled. "He said, 'Yeah, Mr. Mel, I want a tryout.' So, sure enough, made a call to the general manager, Kevin Colbert at the time, and they brought him in, worked him out."
Goodwin began his career as an undrafted free agent with the Steelers in 2014 and bounced through stints with the Falcons, Cardinals, Giants, 49ers, and Bengals before finding a home in Dallas in 2018.
From there, he became a fixture, surviving three head coaching changes and carving out a 12-year career built entirely on perseverance.
His departure leaves the Cowboys searching for a new special teams ace, with safeties P.J. Locke and Alijah Clark among the candidates to fill the role in 2026.
