FLOWERY BRANCH — Falcons general manager Terry Fontenot and coach Arthur Smith knew the state of the franchise when they were hired two years ago Sunday.
“Yes, the decision that we’ve made before, we knew exactly what we were stepping into,” Fontenot said. “We knew what the challenge was.”
The Falcons immediately traded wide receiver Julio Jones to the Titans.
“We knew early on in Year 1, we were going to have a lot of young players,” Fontenot said. “We were going to have to sign some veterans because we wanted to establish the culture and establish our identity.”
After two seasons of retooling the roster to fit their schemes, trading away or cutting mainstays from the Super Bowl team and taking on the heaviest dead salary-cap hit in the history of the NFL, the Falcons, after back-to-back 7-10 seasons, are positioned to return to respectability and perhaps even make a playoff run in 2023.
The Falcons plan to self-scout and self-assess what happened last season. The team, which had $88 million in dead cap space, had an over/under win mark of 4.5 games in Las Vegas. They surpassed the projected win total while developing one of the younger rosters in the league.
With another draft class and nearly $70 million to spend in free agency, the Falcons are in position to make a quantum leap back to respectability in Year 3.
“We’re in the next phase of the plan,” Fontenot said. “We had a plan from the very beginning, and now we’re in the next phase of that. This is going to be a different offseason than we’ve had in the previous years.”
Last season, linebacker Foye Oluokun, a former sixth-round pick from Yale, led the league in tackles. The Falcons did not have enough money to retain his services. He landed a three-year, $45 million deal with Jacksonville and again led the league in tackles.
Linebacker Rashaan Evans, a 2018 first-round pick by the Titans, played last season on a one-year, $1.75 million deal. He led the Falcons in tackles with 159.
If the Falcons want to retain his services, money will not be an issue.
“We’re still going to be smart,” Fontenot said. “We’re still going to handle things the right way; we’re still going to set parameters and have discipline with everything that we do. Yet, it is going to be a different offseason.”
The Falcons were able to add some veterans, such as Evans and outside linebacker Lorenzo Carter, who signed a one-year, $3.5 million deal last season.
“We want to make sure that we’re setting a foundation the right way, so we had some veterans on some one-year deals, kind of much like (defensive coordinator) Dean (Pees),” Fontenot said. “Dean was here for two years, and yet Dean laid a foundation that’s going to continue to pay dividends moving forward.”
The Falcons are setting up for another roster overhaul.
“That’s the tough part about it because when you sit on Monday after the season ends, you know that it’s going to be a much different team; that’s just the nature of the business,” Fontenot said. “There are going to be a lot of different players. Yet, those players that were here, they were part of setting that foundation.”
Falcons guard Chris Lindstrom can play next season on his $13.4 million fifth-year option or he could sign a contract extension. Lindstrom, who was selected to his first Pro Bowl, said he’s leaving the negotiations to his agent.
“So, when you talk about a guy like Chris, and obviously, we’re not going to talk about contracts, we’re not going to negotiate in the media,” Fontenot said. “But with Chris, you talk about winning championships on and off of the field, and obviously, he was the Walter Payton Man of the Year for us. I got to see his family and spend time with them at that event.”
He’s clearly a building block of the future for the Falcons.
“It’s really cool when you look at a guy that – the person that he is, the person that he is inside of the building,” Fontenot said. “What this offensive line did, he’s a big part of that. You look at our team captains, Chris and Jake (Matthews), Grady (Jarrett), A.J. (Terrell), those are all guys that are the same. They win championships on and off of the field.”
The culture of the team is important and will play a factor in the decisions the Falcons make about who they try to sign.
“We can’t bring players in that don’t fit that,” Fontenot said.
Before the Falcons hit the free-agency market, they will address their own roster. In addition to Evans and Carter, right tackle Kaleb McGary, wide receiver Olamide Zaccheaus, fullback Keith Smith and punter Bradley Pinion are set to become free agents.
“The tough thing sometimes is just because we have more resources this offseason – we still have to have discipline,” Fontenot said. “We still have to set parameters. We’re trying to put together a puzzle.”
The Falcons must weigh what’s best for the team while being fair to the players.
“In some of those cases, sometimes players won’t end up back here,” Fontenot said. “It kind of depends on what the market dictates. We have to make sure that we’re looking at the total picture.”
The Falcons want to bring back as many worthy players as they can who fit the culture and have helped build the team’s foundation.
Making sure a free agent will fit with the team is tricky.
“You want to lean on overlaps, and if you have connections some type of way because it’s more risky in free agency when we’re bringing players from outside of the building when you have a strong culture like we have,” Fontenot said. “We want to make sure we really look hard at our players.”
The former regime had a major hit in free agency when the Falcons signed center Alex Mack in 2016. They also had a big miss when they signed defensive end Ray Edwards to a five-year, $27.5 million deal in 2011. He stuck out like a sore thumb and was released four games into the 2012 season.
“It’s all risk assessment, and it’s a risky business because if there’s a reason they’re letting that player out the building – and it could be just that, that financially they just might not have been able to afford them – they might not be a specific fit,” Fontenot said. “There could be an injury thing. There could be a character thing. It’s all risk assessment, and that’s on us to know exactly.”
Credit: D. Orlando Ledbetter/AJC
Credit: Curtis Compton / Curtis.Compton@
Credit: Curtis Compton / Curtis.Compton@
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Credit: Jason Getz / Jason.Getz@ajc.com
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Atlanta Falcons 2022 results
Sept. 11 Saints 27, Falcons 26
Sept. 18 Rams 31, Falcons 27
Sept. 25 Falcons 27, Seahawks 23
Oct. 2 Falcons 23, Browns 20
Oct. 9 Buccaneers 21, Falcons 15
Oct. 16 Falcons 28, 49ers 14
Oct. 23 Bengals 35, Falcons 17
Oct. 30 Falcons 37, Panthers 34 OT
Nov. 6 Chargers 20, Falcons 17
Nov. 10 Panthers 25, Falcons 15
Nov. 20 Falcons 27, Bears 24
Nov. 27 Commanders 19, Falcons 13
Dec. 4 Steelers 19, Falcons 16
BYE WEEK
Dec. 18 Saints 21, Falcons 18
Dec. 24 Ravens 17, Falcons 9
Jan. 1 Falcons 20, Cardinals 19
Jan. 8 Falcons 30, Buccaneers 17
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