Mike Purcell has spent more than 3,000 days of his life being on an NFL roster. He wants to add one more day.

The Highlands Ranch native is retiring after having been an NFL defensive tackle for a decade. Purcell spent time last August with New England after a 2019-23 stint with Denver, but he’d like the Broncos to officially be his last stop.

“I grew up a Denver Broncos fan and was able to play for my hometown team,’’ Purcell told The Denver Gazette from his home in Boise, Idaho. “I’d like to sign a one-day contract and retire a Bronco, for sure.”

Purcell, 33, said he has talked to his agent, Cameron Foster, about wanting that to happen. Foster told The Denver Gazette last Tuesday of Purcell’s decision to retire to spend more time with his family.

Purcell has a son, 9, and two daughters, one 6, the other 9 months. When he wasn’t on an NFL roster during the 2024 regular season, he spent what he called precious time with them.

“It wasn’t easy,’’ Purcell said of his decision to retire. “But I’m grateful for 10 years in the NFL and now I have time to be at home with the kids and kind of see what’s next in life.”

Purcell was released by the Patriots before the start of the regular season. He said several teams reached out during the season to express interest in signing him, including San Francisco and Seattle, but he didn’t want to sign a deal to “be a body for a weekend.” He became more and more comfortable with being at home and made the decision not to pursue any other possible offers.

Purcell, who starred at Highlands Ranch High and Wyoming, was undrafted in 2013. But he was signed by the 49ers and spent 2013 on their practice squad. He got into 25 regular-season games for them from 2014-16, starting eight, before his career stalled.

Between 2016-17, Purcell had stints with the Los Angeles Rams, Chicago, Carolina, New England and Kansas City, but never got into a regular-season game. He then spent the spring of 2019 with the Salt Lake Stallions of the Alliance of American Football, getting into eight games before the league folded with two games left.

“After San Francisco, I kind of bounced around, and it was tough,’’ Purcell said. “It was stressful. But if it hadn’t have been for Salt Lake and the AAF, I probably wouldn’t have made it back to the (NFL). It was an opportunity to go back out there and just play ball.”

Purcell was signed by the Broncos after the AAF shut down and made the team. He had grown up a big fan of Broncos players such as linebacker Al Wilson, safety John Lynch and defensive tackle Maa Tanuvasa. Purcell ended up taking uniform No. 98 because that is what Tanuvasa, a fellow Polynesian, wore during his 1995-2000 Broncos tenure.

“That was a dream come true being able to play for the Broncos,’’ Purcell said. “It was surreal being able to wear that uniform, to run out of that tunnel (at Empower Field at Mile High), to hear your name and play on that field.”

Playing with Denver from 2019-2023, the 6-foot-3, 328-pound Purcell got into 65 games, starting 37, and was an effective run stopper. He played for head coach Sean Payton during his first season of 2023 before the Broncos elected not to re-sign him after he became a free agent last March.

Purcell said he was told the Broncos were looking to go “younger” on the defensive line. One of their moves was signing free-agent defensive tackle Malcolm Roach, 26, who proved to be a good addition.

During the 2024 season, the Broncos made the playoffs for the first time since 2015. Purcell said it “bums me out a little bit that I wasn’t there with them, but I was happy for those guys.”

Purcell said it also “was kind of a bummer they brought back those retros the year after I was out.” He was a big fan of the 1977 throwback uniforms Denver wore twice during the season.

Overall, though, Purcell has become at peace with being out of the NFL. While Purcell’s immediate plans are to spend time with his family, he is considering down the road getting into coaching. Purcell doesn’t know if that might be at the high school, college or pro level, but he wants to help other players overcome some of the odds he did.

“I was under recruited and I felt like I was never looked at as much as I should have been,’’ Purcell said of times during his football career. “But I did have a lot of people who helped me, and I’d like to share any pieces of information I’ve learned and help somebody else make their dream true.”

As far as playing 90 games in the NFL, Purcell takes a lot of pride in that. Coming up, though, he wouldn’t mind having one more day on the Broncos’ roster.

What I’m hearing

— Darren Rizzi remains the leading candidate to become the Broncos’ special teams coordinator, replacing the fired Ben Kotwica. However, Denver must satisfy the Rooney Rule of interviewing two outside diversity candidates for the position before Rizzi can be hired. Rizzi was New Orleans’ special teams coordinator the past six seasons, having been hired in 2019 by Payton and spending his first three years under then-Saints head coach. Rizzi was the Saints’ interim coach for the last eight games in 2024, going 3-5, and has interviewed to stay on. However, the leading candidate for the job is Philadelphia offensive coordinator Kellen Moore.

— Legendary Hall of Fame guard Jerry Kramer, 89, has been invited to and plans to attend the April 24-26 draft in Green Bay. Kramer, who was with the Packers from 1958-68 and is in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, is the only surviving player from all five of Green Bay’s championship teams during the 1960s. Kramer said fans are going to be fired up having the draft in the NFL’s smallest market. He touched upon there having been more than 700,000 fans on hand at the draft last year in Detroit. “If they get 700,00 in Green Bay, 500,000 of them are going to be sleeping in the streets,’’ he said.

What I’m seeing

— After signing as a free agent with the Broncos in March 2023, running back Samaje Perine talked to The Denver Gazette about hoping to return to the Super Bowl with his new team. Perine played for Cincinnati in a 23-20 loss to the Rams in Super Bowl LVI in February 2022. Perine ended up spending just one season with Denver before being released but he hooked on in 2024 with Kansas City and will take the field next Sunday against the Eagles in Super Bowl LIX. Perine had modest regular-season statistics of 92 yards rushing and 28 catches for 322 yards. But he did have the game-clinching play in the Chiefs’ 32-29 win over Buffalo in the AFC championship game, catching a 17-yard pass for a first down, allowing the Chiefs to soon run out the clock.

— If the Eagles fall to the Chiefs in the 11th Super Bowl played in New Orleans, they will join the Broncos, Vikings and Patriots as two-time losers in the big game in the Big Easy. Philadelphia dropped Super Bowl XV 27-10 to the Oakland Raiders in January 1981. The Broncos lost Super Bowl XII 27-10 to Dallas in January 1978 and Super Bowl XXIV 55-10 to San Francisco in January 1990. The Vikings lost Super Bowl IV 23-7 to the Chiefs in January 1970 and Super Bowl IX 16-6 to Pittsburgh in January 1975. The Patriots lost Super Bowl XX 46-10 to Chicago in January 1986 and Super Bowl XXXI 35-21 to the Packers in January 1997. But at least they came back to defeat the St. Louis Rams 20-17 in Super Bowl XXXVI at the Superdome in February 2002.