Via Yahoo! Sports comes this report that DeAngelo Hall intends to play out the rest of his rookie contract. From a business perspective, this doesn't make a lot of sense unless Hall has no intention to play in Atlanta past 2008 when his contract comes up. Unless he's thinking he can drive the Falcons or another team up into a ridiculous Nate Clements-type contract, I'm not entirely sure why he'd want to play out his rookie contract. The problem with Hall is that he's way more confident than his results merit, as he's a very good cornerback who definitely hasn't proved enough to be classified as elite. If he thinks some team is going to be dumb enough to throw wads of cash at him in two years...well, he's probably right. There are a lot of dumb teams.
This suddenly explains why the Falcons went out and drafted Houston and Irons, however. There's a chance the two could be starters by 2009, though there's an equally good chance the Falcons will just go ahead and re-sign Hall. I would love to see DeAngelo Hall in a Falcons jersey for the next six or seven years; he's a funny guy and a great competitor. But if he's going to go to the free agent market and drive up his price to something insane, I'd just as soon let him play out his contract and look elsewhere.