Free agency is surprisingly close, so it\u2019s a natural time to remind ourselves of who the Falcons will have to make decisions on in the next couple of months. There are a few impact players on the list, a lot of useful depth, and some players the Falcons can probably let go without breaking much of a sweat.<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s get that list going here so we can talk about it.<\/p>\n
OT Ryan Hayes (street free agent; free to sign anywhere right now)<\/p>\n
There are some real priorities here. Working from the bottom up, Bradley Pinion has been a good punter for Atlanta and Zane Gonzalez stabilized the kicker position; with Lenny Krieg signing with the Jets, the Falcons desperately need to bring him back to at least compete for the job.<\/p>\n
Alford, too, feels like a must re-sign. After a disastrous year under Jimmy Lake, Alford re-affirmed he\u2019s a quality player by putting together a terrific year in relief of Billy Bowman Jr. and Mike Hughes for stretches; you\u2019re unlikely to sign more versatile depth with a track record, especially if Jeff Ulbrich sticks around. The Falcons also need to bring back one of Andersen, Woods, or Harrison to provide them with depth at inside linebacker\/special teams, and have to figure out whether they\u2019re willing to completely rebuild their outside linebacker group or if they can bring back Floyd on a decent deal and Kareem as depth. I do not believe Arnold Ebiketie, who seemed frustrated with his role, will be back. With Onyemata likely departing at age 34 and young players taking over, I\u2019d bring back Street as an early down rotation option.<\/p>\n
Offensively, the needs aren\u2019t as dire, but if Dwayne Ledford stays he\u2019s probably going to want Wilkinson around after he played every game this year and proved he can be a solid fill-in starter if injures crop up. Allgeier would be high on my priority list, but I am pessimistic they re-sign him given that he should be able to land a starting job elsewhere.<\/p>\n
That leaves Pitts as an obvious priority, but it\u2019s a question of price point and whether the Falcons will mull the franchise tag. Losing Pitts and having to rebuild the tight end depth chart and receiver depth chart in the same offseason feels like a tough sell, so at least working out a one-year deal feels likely.<\/p>\n
The returns of Dwayne Ledford, Nate Ollie, and Jeff Ulbrich will make a difference for everyone on this late, but at an original round tender I\u2019d support bringing back all five. Heath has a recent history of solid production, Sills would be a useful WR5, Gwyn has been groomed to be a versatile interior reserve for years, and London and Roberts were legitimately helpful on early downs in 2025.<\/p>\n
Exclusive rights free agents<\/p>\n
Jones is a worthwhile summer quarterback with a shot at taking a QB3 spot, but it\u2019s unclear whether he\u2019ll return with a new coaching staff. I\u2019d also stump for Brooks, who looked terrible when pressed into the starting lineup but remains a useful special teamer who plays well in small doses.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Free agency is surprisingly close, so it\u2019s a natural time to remind ourselves of who the Falcons will…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":691287,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2074],"tags":[223,254,52003,2554,224,7,6],"class_list":["post-691286","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-atlanta-falcons","tag-atlanta","tag-atlanta-falcons","tag-atlanta-falcons-free-agency","tag-atlantafalcons","tag-falcons","tag-football","tag-nfl"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115927780993380010","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/691286","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=691286"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/691286\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/691287"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=691286"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=691286"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=691286"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}