The Falcons are parting ways with kicker Matt Bryant. The club informed him of his impending release, according to an announcement from Bryant on social media. 
“I was informed last night that the team was moving on from my services and that I would be released,” Bryant wrote. “I want to say thank you to all the fans that have stood with me and my family during our time here. I take great pride in my body of work on and off the field. I hope I have represented you well while I was here. It was an honor to be a part of some big moments in this franchise’s history. This chapter is now closed. I look forward to bringing the success and consistency that I’ve produced to my next team.”
Bryant has repeatedly said that he plans to play into his age-44 season. His age could work against him in free agency, but his 2018 season proved that he still has something left in the tank. Bryant connected on 20 of 21 field goals, including a 57-yarder, giving him a 95.2% completion percentage. He also sank 33 of 35 extra point tries.
Bryant signed a three-year, $10.5MM extension with Atlanta last offseason that would have carried him through the 2020 season. Under the old deal, he would have made $2.45MM base salary in ’19.
Horrible move. He was still excellent this season.
I agree, he’s money. Teams never value the kicker until they have a bad one
You’re exactly right
When their playoff hopes rest on a Cody Parkey-type next year…
Lol being a Bears fan, my thoughts exactly.
Exactly as a bears fan and seeing how a bad kicker can cost you the season the way teams treat kickers is astonishing
The issue is, even though he’s money, Atlanta had none of that said money to sign other football players. A terrible but necessary move.
He has never been money against the Falcons though (15 of 20 FGs) so that figures into the decision too.
Bad move. It’s obvious nowadays that you don’t move on from a consistently accurate kicker, no matter the age.
They have no cap room to keep him. They’re going to be releasing lots of players.
STEELERS!
agreed
10-4 on that my friend
Browns!!!
Browns. Agreed
Bears!!!
Haven’t teams seen how it’ll bite them in the butt not having a reliable kicker? I think the Falcons are making a mistake.
It’s a cap space move. They had none.
How much cap space do they save cutting a $2.5MM player?
Nearly all of it. They had under 14M of space and a billion holes to fill.
Georgio Tavechio or however you spell his name signs with Falcons in 3,2,1…
Remeber the freakout when Dallas cut Dan Bailey. See how Bryant actually does before you say its a bad move
did you see how well Parkey did after the Bears released Gould? Falcons may want to reinforce their goal posts 🙂
Gould was released after the 2015 season.
Bailey had dropped from like 95% to 84% to 75% not apples to apples.
He’s not Dan Bailey…..
horrible move, it’s safe to say that the next Falcons kicker will have a worse percentage.
This is a joke. We don’t have a good enough team to let go of what has worked. This years playoffs proved the value of a good kicker
Is Tavecchio still on their roster? He makes about $600k/yr vs Bryant’s $3.5 mil/yr.
yeah Rotoworld is already reporting Tavecchio will be the kicker…hate seeing Bryant go but Tavecchio is good
If they’re worried about him getting injured more as he gets older, I’d rather know who my guy is for a season than be sorting through the scraps to pick a guy up halfway through a season.
It’s a money saving move. They have no cap space.
Is he strictly a quality dome kicker? Wouldn’t mind the Steelers bringing him in as competition with Boswell
As a Bear fan I can only say,they better know who they are replacing him with.
Seahawks! Let’s go…
Browns and chargers need a kicker
Chargers have their kicker locked down now in Bagdley, he single handedly beat the Ravens in the playoffs
Cleveland oughta take a look
Kicker who needs them? Just ask the Chiefs when Carl Petersen cut Nick Lowery and brought in “ I missed 3 in a playoff game” Lynn Elliott and wasted my teams 13-3 year. But hey cool dude Carl saved $400,000 and proved “ No kicker is going tot tell him what to do”.
Wow what decade was that? You don’t hold a grudge long do you?
80’s??
It was the 90s when the chiefs kept losing in the playoffs every year with schottenhiemer
Make it happen it Pace ! Bear Down !