Per Spotrac, The Falcons 2019 salary cap is set to be around $194 million. They currently have just over $172 million committed to 2019, but that number can be a lot less depending on the cuts the Falcons decide to make before the start of the season.
Prime cut candidates include, Vic Beasley ($12.8 million can be cut for nothing), Robert Alford ($9.1 million can be cut for $1.2 million), Ryan Schraeder ($7.75 million can be cut for $3.8 million), Brooks Reed ($5.5 million can be cut for $1 million), Brandon Fusco ($4.85 million can be cut for $1.5 million), and Matt Bryant ($4.16 million can be cut for $1.33 million).
It’s highly unlikely all of these players are cut, but there’s a real possibility most of them are after the Falcons highly disappointing 2018 campaign. It would be a shock if Vic Beasley is on the roster next year, which will instantly give the Falcons another $13 million to work with this offseason. After a poor season, there’s a chance Alford is spending 2019 in another uniform if he is not willing to restructure his contract. Those two cuts alone would give Atlanta about $45 million in cap space this offseason – plenty enough for Thomas Dimitroff to begin addressing the weaknesses of this team.
There’s more than a reasonable possibility the Falcons have in excess of $50 million to spend this offseason along with a hefty amount of draft picks. Taking into account the fact that the Falcons would still be keeping their core players intact, we could see Atlanta easily return to a championship caliber team. After all, parity is what the NFL is all about.