After years of style over substance, the Falcons' Day of Cap Reckoning finally came.
The Falcons' former regime ran up the tab at the bar and split before settling up. That's left new GM Terry Fontenot with the check. We all knew this day would come; you can only kick the cap can down the street for so long.
You could argue that no one could have foreseen the pandemic and its effect on NFL profits. According to the NFLPA, cap space increased by more than 7 percent from 2014-2017. Then grew at 5.8 percent in 2018 & 2019. In all, the salary cap jumped over 40 percent from 2015 to 2020.
I suppose the logic for many teams was we'll get our cost of playing football increase every year in perpetuity. As long as the TV networks are throwing piles of cash at us every five years.
Problem is, the Falcons' salary cap has become so top heavy and so much money has been restructured that a reckoning was inevitable. The 2020 season just pushed up the expiration date.
So much money is tied to Matt Ryan and Julio Jones. Before the latest restructuring of Matt's contract, the two players accounted for nearly a third of our cap space.
It's a sticky situation when one of your most popular players demands a raise with three years left on his contract. Or was it? Julio was in his bag a few years back as lesser talents reset the market at WR. Since the former GM moved heaven and earth to get Julio, he would never trade him. To me it was the former GM's trifecta of hubris, ego and stubbornness. Always style over substance. Always the shiny, skilled position pieces over the brick and mortar of O-line and D-line.
So we commit more crazy money to a player that in the heart of his extension would be on the wrong side of 30. Why Jones has only one double-digit TD season is beyond most of us. Never reaching the full potential of being the ultimate red-zone weapon with our franchise QB and now is breaking down at this stage of his career. Yes, I know he's a Hall of Famer. Yes, I know you love him. Yes, I know it's a two-way street and Ryan's job is to do better getting him the ball. Well how can Ryan do that when Julio is on the sideline or Ryan is on his back? With all the issues this team had after the Super Bowl season, it was stupid to cave to his demands!
Did you know that only three of the current 20 highest-paid wide receivers in the NFL have a Super Bowl ring? Mike Evans and Tyreek Hill are 27, Chris Godwin is 25.
I'm not saying you cut your nose off to spite your face the way Bill O'Brien did in Houston with DeAndre Hopkins, you have to get a helluva lot more than he did for D-Hop in that one-sided trade with Arizona. But imagine how this franchise could have been reset with draft equity by trading Julio in his perceived prime?
I'm not just using Julio as the only example. Jake Mathews got a new deal, no questions asked. Des Trufant years ago with another year left on his deal got a big extension. Why? Draft picks were always validated by contracts instead of just once, asking maybe we should cut bait?
It wasn't until the ultimate DQ-Dimitroff flop in Vic Beasley that the light went on. By the time Takk McKinley was cut too many ill-advised extensions were hanging around our neck like an albatross.
As I've said on the air, let's hope Julio bounces back, let's hope the new Arthur Smith run game makes play-action more effective and Matt and Julio can produce the touchdowns we haven't been getting. It's not like Julio or Matt are going anywhere this year.
Lets hope our new GM finds us a stud RB, and some quality offensive lineman. Last year's plan was splashy but at the end of the day earned us four wins.
The Falcons added two of the biggest names in free agency last offseason in a desperate effort to appease the part of the fan base that thinks this is a Madden game. Todd Gurley was available for just $6 million... for a reason. We all love Todd, great Bulldog and a great dude. But his torn ACL a few years back and subsequent arthritic condition limited his touches. Dante Fowler had 11.5 sacks in 2019 playing next to Aaron Donald. Dimitroff and Quinn were whistling past the graveyard with these moves. Style over substance. It's ironic Dimitroff didn't draft a running back in the middle rounds, something he was always good at.
At least our new GM Terry Fontenot got Fowler to restructure (pay cut) his deal with incentives. Let's hope Dean Pees' 3-4 scheme can reenergize Fowler's game.
James Carpenter is gone as a cap casualty. You could argue he and Jamon Brown were a total waste of money. Carpenter did play better last year allowing just two sacks. The statistical bean-counter at Sports Info Solutions say he missed 40 blocks the last two seasons.
Let us hope that Terry Fontenot will select more substance over style.
We have no money for big-name free agents. We are paying the price for years of never coming to grips with the fact the business model wasn't working.
It stinks. We want that new car but we're so upside down all we could hope for is a used lemon.
Well, instead of scratching off lottery tickets and chasing get-rich schemes we're going to roll up our sleeves and go to work at a real job this time. We're gonna pay off the bills, raise our credit score and in couple of years we're gonna be holding that Lombardi trophy in the back seat of a brand new convertible rolling down Peachtree.