Brent Grimes Returns To Atlanta On One-Year Tender

Either those Asante Samuel talks lit a fuse, or Brent Grimes and the Falcons have been working quietly for a long time now. The upshot? Brent Grimes is back in Atlanta.

After signing his one year, roughly $10 million franchise tender, Grimey is officially in the fold for next season. Inarguably the team's best cornerback over the last three seasons, he'll return to a brand new coordinator and a more aggressive scheme that ought to suit him just fine. I think everybody's hopeful that the cap hit won't be $10+ million when everything's said and done, but having him back is stellar. He's a terrific player.

I predicted this sucker would drag well into the summer, a prediction that turned out to be just as wrong as every other prediction I've made in the last six years. It's impossible not to draw a bright line between the team's pursuit of Samuel and Grimes signing the contract, but we won't know one way or the other for a while what sparked the signing today. I'm just glad this has been resolved.

A long-term deal is still the endpoint here, so you can bet that neither Grimes or the front office will be resting on their laurels now. Stay tuned for more in the weeks ahead.

Your thoughts on Grimes' return?