RealGM

Falcons are bad, 2020 salary cap situation makes things worse

What the Atlanta Falcons are doing is something different: They’re one of the worst teams in the league, and they simultaneously have the worst salary cap situation in the league heading into 2020.

As noted by Zack Moore of OverTheCap.com, the Falcons project to be $8.7 million over the cap next year based only on the players they currently have under contract, before they draft any rookies or sign any free agents.

That’s largely a result of spending big money on a few key players, most notably Matt Ryan and Julio Jones, who all by themselves are expected to count for 27 percent of the Falcons’ salary cap next year. The five most expensive players on the Falcons (Ryan, Jones, Jake Matthews, Grady Jarrett and Desmond Trufant) are slated to cost more than half the salary cap. Five players. More than half of the entire salary cap.

pssshhhrrr87 wrote:Which is why Blank needs to finally fire Dimitroff.

Keep going down the roster to the Top 10 players, the Top 22 players, or however you want to slice it, and the end result is the same: The Falcons have an extraordinary amount invested in the top of their roster, which leaves precious little cap space for the rest of the roster. Next year they’re going to have to fill a lot of holes with league-minimum-salary players.

And maybe that would be OK, if the highly paid stars at the top of the roster were capable of carrying a team all by themselves. But they’re not. The Falcons are 1-6 with those highly paid stars. There’s absolutely no reason to believe they’ll be any better next year.

Falcons owner Arthur Blank said after Sunday’s loss that he still supports head coach Dan Quinn. Perhaps he realizes that the Falcons’ roster has been constructed so poorly that no coach can turn them around any time soon.

Jamaaliver wrote:

pssshhhrrr87 wrote:Which is why Blank needs to finally fire Dimitroff.

On second thought, it really might be time...

Keep going down the roster to the Top 10 players, the Top 22 players, or however you want to slice it, and the end result is the same: The Falcons have an extraordinary amount invested in the top of their roster, which leaves precious little cap space for the rest of the roster. Next year they’re going to have to fill a lot of holes with league-minimum-salary players.

And maybe that would be OK, if the highly paid stars at the top of the roster were capable of carrying a team all by themselves. But they’re not. The Falcons are 1-6 with those highly paid stars. There’s absolutely no reason to believe they’ll be any better next year.

Falcons owner Arthur Blank said after Sunday’s loss that he still supports head coach Dan Quinn. Perhaps he realizes that the Falcons’ roster has been constructed so poorly that no coach can turn them around any time soon.

NBC Sports

Devise a realistic trade to help a team before the Oct. 29 deadline

The Falcons trade tight end Austin Hooper and a 2020 sixth-round pick to the Seahawks for a 2020 third-round pick.

Hooper, in the final year of his rookie contract, is second in the league in receiving value based on Football Outsiders' DYAR metric. Seattle needs a dependable tight end now that Will Dissly is out for the season. The Falcons are going nowhere, and with their terrible cap situation they won't be able to sign Hooper to any kind of long-term deal.

The NFL Trades We’d Like to See Before Tuesday’s Deadline

Atlanta trades TE Austin Hooper to Houston for a 2020 second-round pick

[Texans Head] Coach Bill O’Brien needs to win with this team or he won’t be around to make any picks. Might as well ditch the lot.The Texans’ best investment would be sending a pick to Atlanta for Hooper, who has been the breakout player of the year at tight end. The Texans are using tight ends more than they have at any point in Deshaun Watson’s career, but are currently playing Darren Fells and Jordan Akins. Upgrading that to Hooper and Fells alongside DeAndre Hopkins, Kenny Stills, and Keke Coutee would make them a far more dynamic offense.

The Falcons likely don’t want to trade Hooper, but they may have to pick between a bunch of bad and worse options...the Falcons have locked themselves into bad choices. Atlanta has the second-least cap space next year. Matt Ryan is getting top-five QB money; Julio Jones broke the receiver market wide open with a massive guaranteed contract; and defensive tackle Grady Jarrett, linebacker Deion Jones, and running back Devonta Freeman all have near-top-of-the-market deals. All they have to show for it is a 1-6 record. Hooper is in the final year of his rookie contract and playing well enough that the Falcons may have to use the franchise tag to keep him, which could be hard. Even if they could work out a long-term extension with him, they’d be bending over backward to lock in the core of a team that is damn near winless. The alternative would likely be releasing safety Keanu Neal, running back Devonta Freeman, and center Alex Mack. If the Falcons hold on to Hooper, those players may be out in the offseason.

The NFL Teams That Are Getting the Most—and Least—for Their Buck

Every team has a salary cap and a salary floor, but how they spend within in that range varies greatly. Here are the teams that have made the best and worst investments this year



Not Getting What They Paid For: Atlanta Falcons

The 1-7 Falcons are not the worst team in football, but no team has as wide of a gap between who they are and who they thought they would be entering this season. In terms of pure cash spent on players this year (which is different than the salary cap), the Falcons handed out more than a quarter of a billion dollars in 2019, the most in the league. So far it has netted them one more win than the Dolphins, who have handed out the least in the league. Atlanta has allowed the most points, the second-most points per game (behind only the Dolphins), and the third-most first downs (183). Despite spending the seventh-most money on their secondary, they have the lowest team pass coverage grade on PFF. They are also tied for the fewest interceptions in the league (two), have allowed the second-most passing touchdowns (19), the second-highest opposing passer rating (117.6), and the second-highest adjusted yards per pass attempt (9.7), and knocked down the second-fewest passes (17).

The Falcons spend the 11th-most money on their front-seven defenders but have the worst pass rush in the league. Atlanta has seven sacks in eight games, a mark matched or beaten by 10 players this season. Their two most expensive defenders in 2019 are cornerback Desmond Trufant, who is the 66th-highest-graded cornerback on PFF, and outside linebacker Vic Beasley, who is the 93rd-highest-graded edge defender out of 108 qualifying players. Beasley has 1.5 sacks this season, second most on the team. The Athletic reported last week that the Falcons picked up Beasley’s $12.8 million option in 2019 because they were worried that not doing so would upset CAA, the agency that also represents Julio Jones and Grady Jarrett. Instead it clogged their cap the way the Falcons wish Beasley could clog gaps.

Their future is bleaker than their present. Atlanta currently has the second-least cap space for next season, with less than a million dollars available. They are one of four teams with more than $200 million lined up for their current top 51 players, along with the Vikings, Bears, and Jaguars.

Read on Twitter

Atlanta is going to have to make some hard choices. It’s going to have to cut starting center Alex Mack and safety Keanu Neal, which will clear up roughly $14.5 million—enough to pay breakout tight end Austin Hooper with some money leftover. With Matt Ryan, Jones, Devonta Freeman, Trufant, Jarrett, Deion Jones, and Ricardo Allen all locked up long term, the Falcons have gone to amazing lengths to keep the core of a 1-7 team together.

Ranking the NFL's Top-10 Young Cores to Build Around

8. Atlanta Falcons



Key Young Core Players: Calvin Ridley, Austin Hooper, Deion Jones

The Atlanta Falcons' 2-7 start shouldn't take away from the budding young core that's flanking quarterback Matt Ryan and six-time Pro Bowl wide receiver Julio Jones.

There's 2018 first-rounder Calvin Ridley, who is averaging 13.1 yards per catch despite sitting third on the team in receiving. The 25-year-old wideout is behind another core piece, tight end Austin Hooper (also 25), who has a team-high six touchdowns and—at 6'4", 254 pounds—gives Ryan with another big matchup nightmare.

Deion Jones, 25, is one of the better modern linebackers in the NFL, hence his four-year, $57 million extension this offseason to lock him up alongside Grady Jarrett.

Things might seem bad now, but the young core looks like it could fuel a quick rebound.