Falcons exercise fifth year option on Vic Beasley, keeping him in Atlanta through at least 2019

Vic Beasley’s career has been an up-and-down one to this point, as he led the NFL in sacks in 2016 after a solid but unspectacular rookie campaign and then turned in another solid but unspectacular campaign in 2017. His talent is not in doubt, however, and I fully expect that his most productive years are still ahead of him.

That’s why it’s good news that the Falcons have exercised their fifth year option for the 2015 first round pick, keeping a man on pace to break the franchise’s career sack record in the fold through at least the 2019 season.

Beasley’s 2017 saw him turn in five sacks, though he came closer to getting a handful more and was still a productive pass rusher. The team elected to have him spend some time at linebacker last year, which bit into his pass rushing snaps a bit, and he was always likely to come back down to earth a bit production-wise after he got sacks in bushels in 2016. He remains a legitimate talent, and with the Falcons likely to invest in defensive tackle and with Takkarist McKinley looking primed for a huge season at the other end spot, Vic should be able to turn in the kind of numbers that earn you Pro Bowl nods again this season.

Keeping him around for another year was sort of a no-brainer, then, and it lets the team see how their group of young defensive linemen gels. I’m glad we’ll get to see Beasley stick around, and I’m hopeful he’ll have a couple of huge seasons en route to a lucrative extension that effectively makes him a Falcon for life.