The Falcons have a big offseason looming, with Kirk Cousins dominating headlines right now, but there’s a more pressing issue at hand for Terry Fontenot — improving the defense, particularly the pass rush.
Atlanta’s pass rush is so bad that it’s not going to be a one-player-fix-all… or is it? Two of the best pass rushers in the NFL are prospective trade targets in Myles Garrett and Micah Parsons, the former of which is much more likely to be traded this offseason.
The 2024 Defensive Player of the Year requested a trade from the Browns, and while Cleveland remains adamant that they won’t trade Garrett, we know stars generally get their way in this league. If you’re the Falcons, there’s no excuse not to pull out all of the stops to make a Myles Garrett trade come to fruition.
There are certainly some hurdles. Obviously, the Browns have to swallow the difficult pill and trade a generational talent. The Falcons will also have to outbid what I can only assume is half of the league, and the finances have to work out as well. For those reasons, ESPN’s Bill Barnwell believes the Falcons are “unlikely but plausible” to trade for Myles Garrett.
“This would be a move a decade in the making, as the Falcons have spent years trying to find an impactful edge rusher. First-round picks Vic Beasley and Takk McKinley and veteran additions Dante Fowler Jr. and Matthew Judon have failed to make the sustained impact they would have hoped. Judon, who had 5.5 sacks after joining Atlanta in a trade last summer, will be a free agent this offseason.
The only issue for the Falcons is cap space. They’re $8.6 million over the projected cap line for 2025 and would need to create another hole on their offensive or defensive line to free up room. They will try to trade Kirk Cousins — Browns coach Kevin Stefanski has both a need for a quarterback and experience coaching Cousins in Minnesota — but no team is going to want to absorb the $27.5 million base salary guaranteed to him in 2025. Garrett only has a $1.3 million base salary this season, but could the Falcons afford to pay and trade Cousins, acquire Garrett, give him a new extension and stay plausibly cap-compliant?”
If there’s a will, there’s a way. That’s how the Falcons should be operating this offseason. There’s very rarely a future Hall of Famer readily available for a trade, and it’s even more rare when it’s a pass rusher. They’re easily the second-most-valuable players in football, which just so happens to be Atlanta’s biggest weakness.
The salary cap can be manipulated to facilitate a trade and even a subsequent extension to make Myles Garrett the highest-paid defender in the league. If that were an excuse from the Falcons, it wouldn’t sit well with fans.
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