The Falcons have yet to max restructure Julio Jones, Grady Jarrett, and Deion Jones — moves that would net the team about $23 million in cap space in total. And with a free agent market that has already been picked clean, it doesn’t look like that’s going to change anytime soon.
The Falcons will need to create some space to sign their draft class, so one or two of the players mentioned above will have to be restructured — my guess is the latter two names. The front office may want some flexibility with Julio Jones, but he would free up a whopping $9.48 million in cap space by being restructured alone. While Alex outlined where the Falcons still need some help, according to an ESPN source, anything substantial before free agency is looking unlikely.
There were whispers before free agency that the Falcons could shop a few pieces for cap purposes. That never happened, and a few restructures and cuts barely got them just barely under the [cap] number
One veteran NFL agent said Falcons brass talked with his high-end pass-rusher and basically laughed — as in, they’d love to have him, but no chance.
Expect Atlanta to segue to low-cost defensive depth. There’s not much as far as established talent behind defensive tackle Grady Jarrett and Deion Jones
I expect the Falcons to continue to make some minor additions before the start of the season, but this is pretty telling — they aren’t going to make any major moves anytime soon. The draft class will likely determine just how much success Atlanta will have in 2021.
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