Falcons reach injury settlement with guard Jon Asamoah

Jon Asamoah was already on injured reserve. Now he's no longer an Atlanta Falcon.

The Falcons have reached an injury settlement with guard Jon Asamoah. pic.twitter.com/DkfrubeaBp

— FalconsKelsey (@FalconsKelsey) December 21, 2015

Asamoah made it to the second year of his contract with Atlanta, chiefly thanks to the changing regime. Mike Smith and company liked big, capable guards, and Asamoah was arguably the team's best lineman in 2014, and a signing I liked a great deal. Heading into 2015, though, the Falcons switched over to zone blocking principles which reward athleticism and quick feet, and Asamoah found himself out of favor and eventually injured. It's not clear what the settlement entailed, but the Falcons were carrying about $3.9 million in dead cap space in 2016 if they cut him, so we'll have to see how that shakes out.

Those who were hoping that Asamoah would return next year to shore up a pretty mediocre interior are out of luck, it appears. I'm not going to read into what this says for Kyle Shanahan in 2015, but we wish Asamoah well wherever he may land.

There's little question the Falcons will need to rebuild the interior of their line unless Mike Person and Andy Levitre can make giant strides and Ben Garland is the second coming of Harvey Dahl, though, so that group will be interesting to watch this offseason.