It took him a while, but Hunter Renfrow is officially back in the National Football League.
The Carolina Panthers wanted to give Bryce Young another reliable weapon ahead of his third season in the league.
Renfrow spent one year away from the game after battling an autoimmune disease.
He was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis, which caused him to lose a lot of weight and plagued him with fatigue and constant high fevers.
However, while it was a tough time and stepping away from the field was a big blow, it wasn’t all bad.
When asked about his return after being away from the league for one year, he claimed that there were some positive things as well:
“It’s just trying to get back, trying to get healthy, trying to do something I love,” he said when asked about a year out of the game. “I enjoyed other parts of life. We had our second daughter, so enjoying that and just wanting to make sure if I’m going to come back and give my time and attention to something that I was going to be all in on it.”
Renfrow, a native of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, walked on at Clemson and became a standout for the Tigers.
He hauled in 269 passes for 2,884 yards and 17 touchdowns in five seasons with the Las Vegas Raiders.
He had a breakout year in 2021 when he logged 103 catches for 1,038 yards, earning his first Pro Bowl nod.
The former fifth-round pick signed a two-year contract extension worth $32 million with the Raiders back in 2022, but a concussion forced him to be on the sidelines after hauling in 36 grabs for 330 yards.
Then, the Raiders released him after he was held to just 25 receptions for 255 yards in 2023.
Now, at 29 years old, he will look to get touches behind 2024 first-round pick Xavier Legette, this year’s No. 8 pick Tetairoa McMillan, sixth-round pick Jimmy Horn Jr., and veteran Adam Thielen.
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