Falcons re-structure Brooks Reed’s contract, free up cap space

According to Ian Rappaport, the Atlanta Falcons have re-structured the contract of defensive end Brooks Reed, decreasing his $5.4 million cap hit this offseason. We don’t know the full details of the re-structure as of yet, but we should find that out in the next day or two. When we do, we'll pass the information along.

Reed signed a 5 year/$22 million ($9 million guaranteed) contract with the Falcons as a free agent in 2015. That contract had a potential out which could be triggered this offseason and would’ve seen Atlanta accrue only $1.9 million in dead cap if they had cut Reed to save cap space. As a result, he was one of the first names that came to mind as a potential release casualty.

Reed still has one more year left on that contract, accounting for another $5.4 million cap hit next offseason (leaving $940K in dead money if cut), but we’ll see how this re-structure affects that final year as well.

After not providing much of an impact in his first two regular seasons in Atlanta, Brooks Reed had a nice playoff run for the team in 2016 and had his best season as a Falcon in 2017. This past season he started 14 out of 16 games as a defensive end and accounted for 4.0 sacks (including the game-winning sack against the Chicago Bears in week 1). He was also one of the team’s best run defenders coming off the edge as well.

This move means that Brooks Reed will stay a part of Dan Quinn’s defensive line rotation in Atlanta for at least another season. This is the second contract re-structure Atlanta has made in the past few days as well, the first being with guard Andy Levitre.

The Falcons are freeing up cap space and still retaining valuable contributors in the process. It’ll be exciting to see what Thomas Dimitroff and Dan Quinn have in store when free agency kicks off on March 14.