Earlier this morning Spotrac reported that the Atlanta Falcons are restructuring offensive tackle Jake Matthews’ deal again, freeing up $10.5 million in cap space in the process. The Morning Shift was on the air when the initial report came out, and gave their live reactions to it.
“I think it’s so interesting because we’ve really talked the last couple of days about what is the future, what is the picture, what is the game plan for the Falcons in free agency and obviously a lot of the moves they’ve made, and we’ve been talking about Kaden Elliss and we’ll get back into it, but you look at it and go okay they’re trying to get younger, they’re not trying to push money down the road, they’re not trying to pay these guys, you know it’s hey lets kind of turn over a new leaf and then you see the Jake Matthews thing and you’re like boy that really puts to bed anything you were talking about not trying to create any cap issues a couple of years from now…” Mike Johnson said
Mike finished his thought by saying “Seeing that number of 28, in the season of 28 that’s really really interesting to me to try to gather myself around what exactly they think of Jake and how much longer they plan on utilizing him at left tackle.”
According to Spotrac Matthews’ cap hit in 2026 is now roughly $16.8 million, a hit that will balloon to $26.5 million in 2027 (with $20 million in dead money should they move on), and $28.5 million in 2028 (with $12 million in dead money). There’s also a 2029 void year at $3.5 million.
This move indicates that new Falcons General Manager Ian Cunningham may not be done signing free agents, and that at least for now the Falcons plan is for Jake Matthews to be the team’s starting left tackle for the next few years.