The Atlanta Falcons received shocking news on Wednesday, as longtime starting right tackle Kaleb McGary announced his retirement through his agent, Collin Roberts. McGary, 31, started nearly every game for the Falcons since being drafted in the first round of the 2019 NFL Draft. He suffered a significant season-ending injury prior the 2025 NFL season, shortly after signing an extension through 2027.<\/p>\n
McGary was a stalwart on what had been a very good offensive line in Atlanta over the previous two seasons. His presence on the right side was dearly missed in 2025, with the Falcons forced to turn to reserve guard Elijah Wilkinson for the entirety of the season. Swing tackle Storm Norton also wound up missing the entirety of the season with an injury sustained in the summer.<\/p>\n
The Falcons were expecting Kaleb McGary back for training camp to once again bolster the right side of the offensive line. In McGary\u2019s absence, the Falcons now have a desperate need for a starting right tackle. With Wilkinson departing in free agency for the Arizona Cardinals, the job now rests in the hands of Storm Norton once again. Norton has filled in admirably when called upon, but stepping in as a full-time starter has gone poorly for him throughout his career.<\/p>\n
Offensive tackle immediately rockets to the top of Atlanta\u2019s offseason needs. With free agency behind us and no first round pick in the 2026 NFL Draft, the Falcons options for replacing McGary are extremely limited. It\u2019s likely a temporary solution will be needed for the season, and I\u2019d expect the team to look closely at available free agents and veterans on the trade market.<\/p>\n
McGary\u2019s retirement immediately frees up approximately $14M in salary cap space in both 2026 and 2027 for the Falcons. It\u2019s possible Atlanta could ask McGary to repay the prorated portion of his signing bonus in 2026 and 2027, but as this is just $3M total, I\u2019m doubtful they\u2019ll bother.<\/p>\n
Join us in wishing McGary well in the next stage of his career.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Atlanta Falcons received shocking news on Wednesday, as longtime starting right tackle Kaleb McGary announced his retirement…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":861890,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3],"tags":[52003,2591,7,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-861889","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl","8":"tag-atlanta-falcons-free-agency","9":"tag-atlanta-falcons-news","10":"tag-football","11":"tag-nfl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116371945094221626","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/861889","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=861889"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/861889\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/861890"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=861889"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=861889"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=861889"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}