{"id":796015,"date":"2026-03-06T11:35:29","date_gmt":"2026-03-06T11:35:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/796015\/"},"modified":"2026-03-06T11:35:29","modified_gmt":"2026-03-06T11:35:29","slug":"falcons-releasing-wide-receiver-ahead-of-nfl-free-agency","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/796015\/","title":{"rendered":"Falcons releasing wide receiver ahead of NFL free agency"},"content":{"rendered":"

The releases keep on coming ahead of NFL free agency.<\/p>\n

The most recent victim is the Falcons\u2019 Darnell Mooney, who will be released ahead of the new league year, per NFL Network\u2019s Ian Rapoport<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The move will save Atlanta $18.4 million in cap space.<\/p>\n

\"ADarnell Mooney failed to replicate his breakout 2024 season in 2025 with Atlanta. Nathan Ray Seebeck-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

Mooney broke out for the Falcons in 2024, finishing the season with 992 yards and five touchdowns, his highest yardage total since recording 1,055 in 2021. But that was followed by a subpar 2025 campaign, in which he accumulated just 443 yards and one score in 15 games.<\/p>\n

Prior to his two-year stint with Atlanta, Mooney spent four years with the Bears. He only recorded over 700 yards once \u2014 that 2021 campaign, his second year in the league.<\/p>\n

Without Mooney, the Falcons\u2019 wide receiver room is still headlined by former first rounder Drake London. But that\u2019s pretty much it. After London\u2019s 919 yards in 12 games, Atlanta\u2019s next highest yards total from a wide receiver was David Sills V\u2019s 191.<\/p>\n

Atlanta does, however, retain tight end Kyle Pitts and running back Bijan Robinson, two key pieces to its offense. The Falcons decided to place the franchise tag<\/a> on Pitts on Feb. 23, keeping him under contract for another year.<\/p>\n

Pitts led the team with 928 receiving yards last year while Robinson pitched in 820 on top of 1,478 rushing yards and 11 total touchdowns.<\/p>\n

The Falcons \u2014 who finished 8-9 in 2025 \u2014 also enter the season with a major quarterback issue. Michael Penix Jr. earned the starting job over Kirk Cousins to begin the 2025 season, but Penix later tore his ACL in Week 10<\/a> versus Carolina.<\/p>\n

\"AnDarnell Mooney, a fifth-round pick in 2020 out of Tulane, has topped 1,000 yards once in his career. AP<\/p>\n

His status is now unclear for 2026. Penix is looking to return for next year\u2019s season opener, but the Falcons are \u201cleaving their options open,\u201d per ESPN<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Atlanta will also release Cousins<\/a>, along with Mooney, when free agency begins, general manager Ian Cunningham announced on Feb. 24. The legal tampering period opens Monday before free agency officially starts Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Besides Cousins and Mooney, players like the Cardinals\u2019 Kyler Murray<\/a>, the Commanders\u2019 Marshon Lattimore<\/a>, the Chiefs\u2019 Jawaan Taylor<\/a> and the Giants\u2019 Bobby Okereke<\/a> are also expected to be released when free agency begins.<\/p>\n

And for the Falcons, it\u2019s clear which positions they need to address now.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The releases keep on coming ahead of NFL free agency. The most recent victim is the Falcons\u2019 Darnell…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":796016,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2074],"tags":[223,254,2554,224,7,6,89225,2592,9],"class_list":{"0":"post-796015","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-atlanta-falcons","8":"tag-atlanta","9":"tag-atlanta-falcons","10":"tag-atlantafalcons","11":"tag-falcons","12":"tag-football","13":"tag-nfl","14":"tag-nfl-free-agency-2026","15":"tag-nfl-free-agency","16":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116182026748152427","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/796015","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=796015"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/796015\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/796016"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=796015"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=796015"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=796015"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}