Tag: Terry Fontenot

Falcons GM was in attendance for Malik Willis’ impressive pro day

One day after trading away Matt Ryan to the Colts, Falcons GM Terry Fontenot was out scouting another potential franchise quarterback.

One day after trading away Matt Ryan to the Colts, the Atlanta Falcons were out scouting their next potential franchise quarterback.

Falcons general manager Terry Fontenot was among the many NFL scouts and personnel people in attendance for Liberty quarterback Malik Willis‘ pro day on Tuesday.

Willis figures to be a top-10 pick in the 2022 NFL draft and may have helped solidify himself as such with an impressive performance. We already knew the Liberty signal-caller was among the most elusive players in the draft, but he reminded everyone that his arm is just as dangerous of a weapon.

Here are some of the best throws from Willis’ pro day, as shared by the NFL Network’s Twitter account.

Falcons recap: Arthur Smith, Terry Fontenot discuss offseason

Falcons GM Terry Fontenot and head coach Arthur Smith discussed the offseason at Tuesday’s pre-combine presser.

The 2022 NFL scouting combine is officially under way in Indianapolis as players from this year’s class look to improve their draft stock. On Tuesday, general managers and head coaches, including Terry Fontenot and Arthur Smith, took the podium to discuss the combine and offseason.

In today’s Falcons recap, we break down the major takeaways from the press conference, look at Ridley trade speculation and continue to preview free agency.

Falcons ranked 23rd in Touchdown Wire’s latest power rankings

The Falcons were listed at No. 23 in Touchdown Wire’s way-too-early 2022 NFL offseason power rankings.

It’s been a year since the Falcons hired general manager Terry Fontenot and head coach Arthur Smith, and as expected, the roster still needs plenty of work.

A 7-10 record netted Atlanta the No. 8 overall pick in the upcoming NFL draft, but with key players like running back Cordarrelle Patterson and linebacker Foye Oluokun hitting free agency, it will tough for the team make any drastic improvements.

Touchdown Wire’s Nick Wojton listed the Falcons at No. 23 in his way-too-early 2022 offseason NFL power rankings feature. Despite having many flaws, Atlanta stayed competitive, Wojton writes.

“The Falcons need a lot of help–but they did still manage to win some games in 2021 and away from home. There’s something there, but addressing concerns in the trenches this offseason is a good starting point. Atlanta still has to figure out what’s happening with wide receiver Calvin Ridley as well. They can’t really afford another hole.”

Fortunately, the Falcons added a big-time playmaker in tight end Kyle Pitts last offseason, but Ridley’s potential loss could cause several of the team’s same offensive issues to resurface in 2022.

Without much cap space, Fontenot and Smith will have to absolutely crush the draft and free agency, while restructuring multiple contracts for the team to end its four-year playoff drought.

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Tuesday takeaways: Smith, Fontenot discuss offseason

On Tuesday, Falcons HC Arthur Smith and GM Terry Fontenot gave a joint press conference talking about the state of the team.

The Atlanta Falcons closed out their season on Sunday with a 30-20 loss to the New Orleans Saints.

Head coach Arthur Smith went 7-10 in his first year replacing Dan Quinn, and while there were some ugly moments, the fact that Smith won seven games with a seriously flawed roster is quite an accomplishment.

Credit must also go to first-year general manager Terry Fontenot, who did his best to overcome an awful financial situation. On Tuesday, Smith and Fontenot gave a joint press conference talking about the state of the team and the upcoming offseason.

Four Verts: The Falcons flopped again and the Colts are a power in the AFC

The Falcons are fake news. The Colts are not.

Three weeks left.

This has been a fairly strange NFL season, even excluding the flurry of COVID-19 issues that have caused the NFL to put an extremely poor product on the field right now. Still, the playoff race is heating up down the stretch and the latest week of NFL action gave us new points to talk about as the playoffs get closer.

One team was clearly exposed as a bottom feeder masquerading as a team with playoff hopes while another team is performing much better than their record suggests.

This week’s Four Verts is all about big decisions and teams in big spots — in one way or another. Let’s dive in.

Saints projected to earn 3 compensatory draft picks again in 2022

Saints projected to earn 3 compensatory draft picks again in 2022

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A year after the New Orleans Saints received three additional selections in the 2021 NFL draft, they’re predicted to do so again. The analysts at Over The Cap have come closest to cracking the NFL’s tightly-guarded code for determining comp picks, and after correctly forecasting the team would be awarded 2021 draft picks in the third round (for Teddy Bridgewater) and the sixth round (for A.J. Klein), they’re projecting a continued trend for the Saints in 2022.

Right now, OTC projects the Saints to receive a fourth rounder for Trey Hendrickson and a sixth rounder for Sheldon Rankins — in addition to the third round comp pick the Saints have already earned for Terry Fontenot in the NFL’s incentivized minority hiring policy. A handful of other teams are predicted to receive three comp picks each, while the Rams (five) and Chargers (four) pace the NFL.

In past years, Hendrickson’s $15 million per-year contract would have been a sure third round comp pick for the Saints. But that new incentives policy guarantees third-round compensation for teams who lose a minority candidate to a head coach or general manager role on another team, which pushes highly-valued contracts like Hendrickson’s down below the threshold and into the fourth round. It’s the difference between picking at No. 105 and waiting until No. 142 to make your selection.

Still, the Saints are direct beneficiaries of this policy so we can’t complain. And creating greater diversity in leadership roles across the league, better representing the population of players who are subject to their decisions, is a worthy cause deserving of those incentives. And, hey, remember: this is only a projection. Maybe the Saints end up getting a better pick for Hendrickson after all.

Last year, New Orleans used all of its compensatory draft picks to pad out trade packages while moving up the board to target specific players. They put the third rounders for Fontenot and Bridgewater together so they could leapfrog 22 spots and go get Paulson Adebo, who is competing to start Week 1.

The Saints then packaged the sixth rounder for Klein with a seventh round pick acquired from the Jaguars (for nose tackle Malcom Brown) so they could vault a dozen spots up the board, landing left tackle Landon Young — who was their highest-graded rookie in preseason, per Pro Football Focus. Even if the Saints didn’t remain in place and use all of their picks on different players, the draft-day versatility that extra ammo creates speaks for itself.

So is this signaling a philosophy shift in how the team approaches free agency and the draft? Or was this two-year trend more based in the logistics issues of struggling to keep a talented team together during a salary cap-shattering pandemic? Will the Saints get back to cooking the books once the cap recovers and goes to the moon in 2023, thanks to an influx of revenue from new broadcasting deals?

I’m guessing it’s a little of both. Even with the salary cap bouncing back two years from now, the Saints won’t be able to re-sign all of their priciest free agents — the 2022 class includes defensive cornerstones Marshon Lattimore and Marcus Williams, franchise left tackle Terron Armstead, and quarterbacks Jameis Winston and Taysom Hill. If any of them are signed by another team, the Saints should be poised to net another comp pick in 2023.

For the curious, here are the current list of Saints draft picks in 2022 (their initial sixth rounder was forfeited by the NFL for COVID-19 protocol violations last year):

  • Round 1
  • Round 2
  • Round 3
  • Round 3 comp (Fontenot)
  • Round 4
  • Round 4 comp (Hendrickson)
  • Round 5
  • Round 6 comp (Rankins)
  • Round 7

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Falcons salary cap ceiling set at $208.2M for 2022 season

The NFL has officially set the 2022 salary cap ceiling at $208.2 million on Wednesday.

The NFL officially set the 2022 salary cap ceiling at $208.2 million on Wednesday. However, while we now know the maximum in which teams will have, the floor for next year’s salary cap has yet to be determined, per NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero.

Where do the Falcons stand in this regard? This increase in salary cap space comes as good news for the team after spending much of the offseason getting out of a $30 million cap deficit. Here is a rundown of Atlanta’s current roster for 2022. Since the cap floor has yet to be set, Over The Cap uses the max value $208.2 million in their projection.

Needless to say, the lower the cap, the less money the team will have at their disposal.

2022 Cap Space Projection: $ (4,870,866)
Player Cap Hit
Matt Ryan $ 48,662,500
Grady Jarrett $ 23,833,000
Jake Matthews $ 23,689,200
Julio Jones $ 19,263,000
Deion Jones $ 18,657,059
Calvin Ridley $ 11,116,000
Tyeler Davison $ 5,013,334
Chris Lindstrom $ 4,680,059
AJ Terrell $ 3,251,306
Kaleb McGary $ 3,266,373
Mike Davis $ 3,250,000
Marlon Davidson $ 1,885,193
Keith Smith $ 1,666,668
Matt Hennessey $ 1,293,593
Kendall Sheffield $ 1,154,922
John Cominsky $ 1,087,098
Mykal Walker $ 1,081,521
Jaylinn Hawkins $ 1,061,728
Qadree Ollison $ 1,042,891
Sterling Hofrichter $ 919,435
Kobe Jones** $ 828,333
Kion Smith** $ 828,333
Erroll Thompson $ 827,667
JR Pace** $ 827,167
Ryan Neuzil** $ 826,667
Austin Trammell** $ 826,667
Javian Hawkins $ 826,667
Alani Pututau** $ 826,667
Caleb Huntley** $ 826,667
Joe Sculthorpe** $ 826,000
John Raine** $ 825,500
Marcus Murphy** $ 825,500
William Sweet** $ 825,500
Dwayne Johnson Jr.** $ 825,500
Antonio Nunn $ 825,500
Zac Dawe** $ 825,500
Dorian Etheridge** $ 825,500
Feleipe Franks $ 825,500
Bryce Hargrove** $ 825,500
Kyle Pitts* $ 7,479,679
Richie Grant* $ 1,879,179
Jalen Mayfield* $  1,183,640
Darren Hall* $ 1,062,189
Drew Dalman* $ 1,019,181
Ta’Quon Graham* $ 912,653
Ade Ogundeji* $ 885,039
Avery Williams* $ 885,039
Frank Darby* $ 876,123
Top 51-man Roster projection $ 213,070,866

*= Signifies (drafted) rookie contract projection per OTC
**= Signifies players I don’t think will make it to the 2022 season in Atlanta

As you can see, once the Falcons make room to sign their 2021 rookie class, the team will once again be over the cap entering 2022. Although, the method the team uses to create cap space will also play a role in next year’s cap.

Trading Julio Jones, which seems more and more likely each day, will drop his his dead cap hit from $19 million to just $15.5 million. The difference of $3,763,000 isn’t enough to make the team cap compliant. Also, Dante Fowler’s $4.6 million dead cap hit in 2022 will bring the team total to $20,166,666. Fowler’s cap hit is already reflected in the roster chart above.

Another option to keeping Jones in 2021 would be to give Grady Jarrett a max restructure. However, this will also cause the Falcons to lose over $6 million in cap space next season.

There are also the players who are unlikely to stay in Atlanta beyond the 2021 season. These players are noted in the roster chart above and their absence from the team will net a savings of $11.5 million. This alone would bring the Falcons under the cap by $6.7 million.

Again, this projection uses the max value, and we can expect the real life outcome to be lower. So unfortunately, the Falcons will be operating with little to no money next offseason as well.

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Falcons GM: ‘No way we weren’t drafting Kyle Pitts’

Falcons general manager Terry Fontenot discussed the team selecting Kyle Pitts with their top draft choice.

Leading up to the draft, nobody truly knew what the Falcons planned on doing with their No. 4 selection. While some felt the team would go for a quarterback, others felt Atlanta would either trade down or draft tight end Kyle Pitts.

Falcons general manager Terry Fontenot recently spoke on Atlanta’s decision to draft Pitts during a guest appearance on SiriusXM NFL Radio.

“No way we weren’t drafting Kyle Pitts right there on the spot,” stated Fontenot. “I talked to a lot of former general managers and assistant general managers and people I respect in the business, and everyone else, they made that same pick.”

Fontenot even addressed that he had an open line for teams looking to trade up, but nothing came through that was worth moving on from Pitts.

“We did have an open line and we listened to teams, and you have to listen and see if there is going to be compensation that just knocks your socks off,” continued Fontenot. “So, we listened and we didn’t have any offers that really moved the meter in that way.”

When the 49ers made their blockbuster move to trade up to No. 3 overall, many anticipated the Falcons would receive a similar offer. However, no other team was willing to give up that much draft capital to take the No. 4 selection from Atlanta. Justin Fields fell to pick No. 11 and Chicago, who traded up from 20 to 11, landed the OSU quarterback many had pegged for the Falcons. As for Alabama’s Mac Jones, he fell to New England at pick No. 15.

After restructuring Matt Ryan’s contract and the team using multiple picks to build up the offensive line, it is reasonable to believe that Pitts was always the top choice for Atlanta.

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Report: Falcons prefer to build around Ryan, expected to draft Pitts

Over the last few months, we’ve heard a handful of names mentioned as possible Falcons draft targets.

Over the last few months, we’ve heard a handful of names mentioned as possible Falcons draft targets. Justin Fields, Trey Lance, Kyle Pitts and Ja’Marr Chase have all been mocked to Atlanta multiple times. And while it’s fun to speculate during a long offseason, the team’s decision really comes down to the top remaining quarterback — Fields or Lance — and Pitts, the play-making tight end out of Florida.

Chase is on the radar as well, especially with Julio Jones potentially getting traded after June 1 for cap relief. However, Pitts is more of a TE/WR hybrid and his versatility is why he’s consistently named as the top non-QB prospect in this year’s draft class.

Head coach Arthur Smith, who served as the Titans tight ends coach for three years prior to becoming offensive coordinator, is rumored to be enamored with Pitts.

Another Falcons rumor being tossed around comes from ESPN’s Dan Graziano and Jeremy Fowler, who write that both Smith and Falcons GM Terry Fontenot prefer to try and win now by retooling around veteran QB Matt Ryan.

“But new coach Arthur Smith and new general manager Terry Fontenot would prefer to try to build a winning team in the short term around Matt Ryan, and Blank ultimately decided he wouldn’t overrule the two guys he just hired to make these decisions for him,” write the two ESPN analysts.

“So while obviously things could change if San Francisco pulls a surprise at No. 3 or if someone offers the Falcons a major haul to move up to No. 4, Atlanta is expected to stay put and take Pitts, whom some would tell you is the best player in the entire draft.”

Is this a smokescreen? Are the Falcons trying to drive up the price of a potential trade? Only Fontenot and Smith know the answers to these questions, but fortunately, we won’t have to wait much longer to find out.

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VIDEO: Falcons GM, head coach hold pre-draft press conference

The Falcons have been suspiciously quiet over the past week when it comes to discussing their intentions in the 2021 NFL draft.

The Falcons have been suspiciously quiet over the past week when it comes to discussing their intentions in the 2021 NFL draft. Atlanta did make headlines on Monday, though, when general manager Terry Fontenot confirmed that the team has been receiving trade offers for All-Pro receiver Julio Jones.

Since no trade involving Jones can happen until June 1 due to salary cap reasons, the focus is back on the draft. On Wednesday, Fontenot and Falcons head coach Arthur Smith gave their pre-draft press conference.

Watch below, as shared by the team’s Twitter account. Plus, check back after for our takeaways from the presser.