The Falcons have agreed to a brand new deal with Grady Jarrett (Twitter link via NFL.com’s Ian Rapoport). The defensive tackle has a fresh three-year extension that will pay up to $51MM and keep him under contract through the 2025 season. 
Jarrett previously had one year to go on his deal, a four year, $68MM pact inked in 2019. That contract came with $42.5MM in guarantees and $38MM guaranteed at signing. This new deal furnishes Jarrett with a healthy $34.5MM locked in at signing.
The Falcons have now secured their standout interior lineman while tamping down their 2022 cap figure. That’s a big deal for Atlanta. Heading into today, they were in the bottom five of the NFL in cap room — ahead of the Titans, Cardinals, Patriots, and 49ers — and just $4.8MM under the max. The newfound cash will help them sign their rookie class and, perhaps, enable some veteran additions between now and September.
“I’m not going to predict that I 100 percent know,” head coach Arthur Smith said recently when asked about a potential Jarrett extension (via the team website). “He knows where we stand. We love Grady. We also know that players may have their own opinions, and that’s welcome. It’s part of doing business. We’ll see how it plays out. I love Grady and we’d love to keep coaching him.”
Jarrett, who just turned 29, earned Pro Bowl honors in 2019 and 2020. There was no Pro Bowl for him in 2021, but he did suit up for all 17 games while continuing his usually solid work as a run-stuffer.
How odd that the article on options being picked up would be closed for comments.
My comment would have been that I counted up the list and found 19 options were picked up and 12 were declined (counting the one released player as a decline).
This number is interesting in that it shows that almost 40% of the first rounders are essentially not considered to be worthy of their contract. That number seems very high given the extra scrutiny that first round picks are invariably given.
Not considered to be worthy of the fifth year option isn’t the same as not worthy of their contract. Fifth year options used to be much more of a discount than they are now. Bradbury, for instance, would have cost $13.2 million for his declined option, which is more than his first four years cost combined. Obviously Bradbury has been a disappointment, but it’s entirely possible now for a guy to be a bargain on the four years of his rookie deal, but not on the fifth year option.
Right, you’d have to look at their second contract, and do the numbers there as a better gauge for what that 1st Rounder has “earned” in the league.
Like previously said, alot of those 5th year deals come with significantly higher price tags, so just because a team declines said option, doesn’t necessarily mean the team doesn’t value that player…It just means they don’t value them at that high of a price point and/or especially that high of a cap hit.
More often than not though, having that 5th year declined isn’t good news for the player and team staying together. I’ve seen quite a few times the 5th year to be picked up, but then only for an extension to be worked out, which lowers that players cap hit for that 5th year…
So, it definitely tells a large part of the story, but not necessarily the entire story, if that makes sense…lol
It does. It just doesn’t tell as much of a story as it used to. This is only the second year of option decisions with the new option amounts. Which is why Carolina trading picks for Darnold and then exercising his option was extra stupid!
Oh yeah, completely agree, especially about the Darnold situation…
I guess it was wishful thinking on their part that Brady would have him turned around…Should have really known better..
Honestly, I cannot believe they fired Joe Brady on the premise he couldn’t get the job done with Darnold, McCaffrey out majority of the time, a former XFL QB, and a washed up, inaccurate Cam Newton..
There isn’t a football mind born yet that could get that job done under those circumstances…
Absolutely. And you didn’t even mention their horrible offensive line, which they tried to address with Cam Erving and Pat Elflein. Brady was a fall guy for Rhule. Brady should have been a head coach candidate this offseason. Now he isn’t even an OC.
Atlanta is pretty bad at this ‘rebuild’ thing. last year, traded J Jones and extended Matt. This year traded Matt and extended 29 y/o Garret.
What’s wrong with the Jarrett extension? If it’s fully guaranteed (which it sounds like it’s not), it’s about the same money Von Miller and Chandler Jones got at 4 and 3 years older, respectively. He’s not as good as those guys, but he’s much younger and fills a scarcer role. Maybe they should have looked to trade him for the rebuild, but it’s hard to throw up too much of a fuss over this one.
When Miami went all in for their rebuild; B Flores 1st year (3-4 years ago). They traded every player with any value. OT, Minka Fitz, everyone. Good young players but drafted by other people. In return, they loaded up for 2 years with lots of draft picks. Now they drafted poorly, and the play reflected that. But if you’re going to rebuild, you have to tear it all the way down, not 25% each year. If they had traded Jones, Matt, and Grady last year; they would have had extra picks for this year and next as well as abundant cap space.
Nothing wrong w/ Garret as a player, but they’re still a sub 500 team w or w/o Garret.
They certainly bungled the Ryan situation, getting next to nothing for him and taking a ridiculous cap hit. At the same time, I sort of respect them biting the bullet and taking a fallow year after having painted themselves into a corner financially. They’re certainly a sub .500 team this year, but I don’t hate the outlook after that. The AFC South looks grim going forward–Brady will leave eventually, Rhule is a lame duck with no QB, New Orleans lost Payton and Armstead, then essentially spent five draft picks on Chris Olave (who I like a lot, but yikes). A third round flyer on Ridder is worthwhile. Terrell is a strong building block. I like London, Ebikete, and Anderson a lot. Maybe next year they can recoup something for Ridley. I get holding onto Jarrett and having one veteran star remaining on that side of the ball.
I get where you’re coming from with the total teardown, but which parts actually worked in Miami? They ended up getting nothing out of the Fitzpatrick deal. The Tunsil trade was great, but Bill O’Brien isn’t there to trade with anymore–even Steve Keim managed to fleece him! Flores did a great job. All the draft capital from trades didn’t do all that much for Miami. Atlanta is still bad enough to be in contention for a top QB next year, like Miami was with their own pick, though Miami obviously must wish they’d chosen differently.
I wonder how different the Atlanta Braves rebuild would have been if they followed your logic and got rid of Freeman too..
One thing is for sure, they wouldn’t have rebounded so fast, and they definitely wouldn’t have won their title…
I don’t follow baseball. No idea what or whom you are speaking of. But each pro league has its own nuances. I do know 30 year olds in NFL have a shorter career time table than a 30 year old in MLB. Especially linemen.
Money > Winning, got it.