The Atlanta Falcons locked up their number one cornerback for the future yesterday when they signed A.J. Terrell to a four-year, $81 million dollar contract extension. Terrell is now the second-highest-paid cornerback in the NFL by salary at $20.25 million per year, behind only the Green Bay Packers' corner Jaire Alexander at $21 million per year. Not many, but some Falcons fans and media members do believe that the Falcons overpaid A.J. Terrell, but earlier today The Morning Shift explained why that was not the case.
“Let’s put it this way if you saw the Jaylon Johnson contract in March and said that’s a good deal, that’s a good job by the Bears, they lock up a good cornerback, and then you looked at the A.J. Terrell one and said, well, not enough this, then you basically don’t know what you’re talking about and you don’t do your research.” Beau Morgan said
Throughout the entire show Beau and Mike Johnson compared the contracts and the statistics of Chicago Bears’ cornerback Jaylon Johnson and A.J. As mentioned earlier Johnson signed a four-year, $76 million-dollar contract with the Bears back in March, with $51 million guaranteed, and an average annual salary of $19 million per year. Terrell’s extension is a four-year, $81 million-dollar deal with $65.8 million in effectively full guarantees at $20.25 million per year, so the Falcons gave their best cornerback market value money.
To Beau’s point If you compare Johnson’s and Terrell’s numbers they support the notion that Terrell is a market value corner. In 53 games Johnson has five interceptions, and four of them came last season. In 61 games A.J. Terrell has four interceptions. Since 2021 in 40 games Johnson has been targeted 181 times and has allowed 125 receptions, so the completion percentage against him is 57.9 percent. Jaylon has allowed eight touchdowns in that span.
On the flip side, in that same span Terrell has been targeted 242 times, allowed 130 receptions, that’s a 53.8 completion percentage against him, and Terrell has allowed 13 touchdowns during that time.
Also, during that same span Jaylon Johnson was behind a defensive front that got 99 sacks while during that span the Falcons front only got 81 sacks. Not only does the eye test say A.J Terrell is a top cornerback in the NFL, but the numbers say it too, and that’s why Terrell is now the second highest paid corner in the league, because he deserves it.