INDIANAPOLIS — The Atlanta Falcons are either playing hardball with Kaden Elliss for negotiating purposes, or they really are willing to let the veteran middle linebacker walk off into free agency this offseason.

Those are the only two ways I see to interpret this comment from new Falcons general manager Ian Cunningham at the NFL Scouting Combine this week: “He’s a free agent. We will see how that goes moving forward. He’s a guy we’re evaluating. We feel like there are a lot of linebackers in this market, feel like we really have to look at our cap situation and our roster moving forward.”

Maybe Cunningham is simply falling back on the principle that the new teacher can’t be too friendly on the first day or the students will walk over him all year. Or maybe he’s going to be an emotionless evaluator throughout his time in Atlanta.

The “there are a lot of linebackers in this market” line makes it sound like it’s going to be the latter of those two choices. There are, in fact, lots of available linebackers. Name brands such as Devin Lloyd, Devin Bush, Quay Walker, Eric Wilson, Nakobe Dean, Lavonte David, Logan Wilson, Matt Milano, Alex Anzalone and Quincy Williams are set to enter free agency. Chicago’s Tremaine Edmunds has been given permission to seek a trade.

Still, this is the same Kaden Elliss who has more tackles than any Falcon over the last three seasons and is sixth in the NFL in quarterback pressure percentage (24.3 percent) in that time.

“He gave us amazing flexibility,” defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich said last week. “To replace Kaden would take more than one human being.”

The Athletic’s projected contract for Elliss this offseason is two years, $19 million. He just completed a three-year, $21.5 million contract with the Falcons.

Another indication that Cunningham has a clinical approach? Here’s what he said about Darnell Mooney: “We’ll decide that here shortly.”

That doesn’t sound like Mooney is guaranteed to return. The veteran wide receiver has one year remaining on his three-year, $39 million deal, but he would count $18.4 million against the salary cap this year. The Falcons can get back $12 million of that space by releasing Mooney with a post-June 1 designation.

Cunningham has already lightened the wide receiver room by one, releasing backup and special teams ace KhaDarel Hodge, according to Jordan Schultz.

The new GM’s all-business approach was only one of the things we heard about the Falcons here this week. A few of the others:

Tyler Allgeier’s price is high

Atlanta’s backup running back will be seeking a contract in the neighborhood of three years, $22 million this offseason. That’s solid starting running back money and almost certainly more than the Falcons will be willing to pay with Bijan Robinson’s second contract looming a couple of years (or maybe just one year) down the road.

Allgeier set the Falcons’ rookie rushing record of 1,035 yards in 2022 after being selected in the fifth round. He earned a total of nearly $4 million from his rookie contract and was pushed to a reserve role by Robinson in 2023, but he still has 676 carries for 2,876 yards over his four seasons in Atlanta.

Robinson will be trying to reset the running back market when he begins his negotiations. The most expensive running back in the league is Saquon Barkley, who is making $20.6 million annually on a two-year deal. Atlanta might be able to get away with slightly below that number per season for Robinson on a longer-term deal, but it’s going to be the type of contract that doesn’t leave much money for other players at that position.

Center of attention

Falcons scouts and executives have spent a lot of time evaluating Florida center Jake Slaughter in the pre-draft process, according to a league source. Slaughter (6-4, 303 pounds) is the highest-ranked center in the class and the No. 83 prospect, according to The Athletic’s Dane Brugler. Texas A&M’s Trey Zuhn III (6-6, 319 pounds) is the only other center in Brugler’s top 100 (No. 96).

Ryan Neuzil, a former UDFA who has been with the Falcons for all four years of his pro career, started all 17 games last year and has started 29 games in the last three seasons. But the Falcons’ hiring of Bill Callahan as the offensive-line coach leaves all of Atlanta’s starters up front a little less comfortable in their starting roles than they were under former line coach Dwayne Ledford.

It’s wait and see on Kyle Pitts

Despite some rumblings that the Falcons are still trying to work out a long-term deal with Pitts, expect him to play this season on the franchise tag, which Atlanta officially put on its tight end Tuesday. The tag doesn’t prevent the Falcons from trying to sign him to a multiyear deal, but that’s not the vibe Atlanta is giving when it comes to Pitts.

“I just felt (the franchise tag) was best to give us some time to evaluate,” Cunningham said.

The Falcons’ approach seems sensible considering Pitts has yet to have back-to-back impressive seasons. After catching 68 passes for 1,026 yards as a rookie in 2021, he had three straight seasons in which he averaged 542 receiving yards before bouncing back with a career-high 88 catches for 928 yards last season.

“Obviously, Kyle is a guy I think very highly of professionally and personally,” head coach Kevin Stefanski said. “I am excited to work with him. His talent is evident on tape.”

Expect Atlanta to be in Indy

There’s a growing list of NFL head and assistant coaches who don’t attend the combine. This year, the 49ers (where Raheem Morris landed as defensive coordinator), Rams and Jaguars didn’t send their head coach and brought few, if any, assistant coaches.

The Falcons will not be following that trend as long as Cunningham and Stefanski are in their jobs.

“Other organizations have their way. This is going to be our way,” Cunningham said. “As many times as we can get in front of the players, we are going to utilize those resources.”

Atlanta has as many as 10 people sitting in on interviews with players this week, including president of football Matt Ryan, Cunningham, Stefanski, assistant coaches and scouts.

“I just believe in getting in front of the players,” Stefanski said. “I believe there is value in that. I believe in our coaches. I want them to have the ability to coach these guys, even if it is for that small amount of time. I want these players to get a feel for who we are, for who our coaches are.”

Stefanski’s offensive and defensive staffs have held planning meetings for the season during downtime in Indianapolis, the head coach said.

Picking apart the process

Cunningham will “use every method humanly possible to manufacture picks” during his time in Atlanta, he said, continuing to push the narrative that he would like to orchestrate trades to turn this year’s five NFL Draft selections into more chances. In 2022, Cunningham’s first year as assistant general manager in Chicago, the Bears turned five picks into 10 with four trades on the final day of the draft.

“There’s a chance we may end up with just five, but I hope that that’s not the case,” Cunningham said this week. “I shared with our scouting staff last week, this is the last time we’re ever going to have five picks. I love picks. That’s going to be part of our philosophy.”

It’s a sound plan, but it probably won’t be beneficial to rush the process. None of the players taken with those five additional picks in 2022 are still with the Bears.

Comp-pick conundrum

Speaking of the Bears, they still believe they should receive compensatory draft picks after the Falcons hired Cunningham. Even he believes the Bears should get those picks. It doesn’t sound like they will, though.

“There are rules that were put in place that I think can be applied to this situation,” Chicago general manager Ryan Poles said. “We have communicated through the right channels, so we will see what happens.”

The rule, enacted in 2020, calls for teams from which a minority candidate is hired away to be the general manager of another team to receive compensatory third-round picks in each of the next two drafts. The Rams, for instance, received additional third-round picks in 2021 and 2022 after the Lions hired Brad Holmes as their general manager.

The problem for the Bears is that the rule expressly states that the general manager must be the “primary football executive” for the compensation to be required. The league has designated Ryan as the Falcons’ primary football executive, a league source told The Athletic, which makes sense considering owner Arthur Blank has said multiple times that Ryan will have the final say on all football decisions.

“I would think they would get the two third-round picks. I don’t know the wording of it. That’s just my perspective,” Cunningham said. “I wouldn’t be sitting here if it weren’t for them giving me that job and helping me grow.”