Contract talks with Falcons DT Grady Jarrett on hold

If you’re looking for the Atlanta Falcons to extend Grady Jarrett past his 2018 contract, you might want to get comfortable.

Jason Butt of The Athletic reports that GM Thomas Dimitroff has indicated that talks are on hold with Jarrett for now.

Dimitroff told The Athletic that it is standard for the Falcons to push back negotiations for a player’s deal if nothing can be agreed upon by the start of the regular season. Dimitroff said he last spoke to Jarrett’s agent, Todd France of Creative Artists Agency, in the middle of last week.

“Our approach on these things is we will negotiate until usually the back end of the preseason, and if not, we both agree that we would move on to another time to discuss it so we can focus on the season,” Dimitroff said.

Dimitroff added that he and France have a good working relationship and that they will address a new deal at a “different part of the season.”

So, for now, things are tabled for Jarrett getting a new extension. No doubt Los Angeles Rams star DT Aaron Donald getting a fresh paycheck doesn’t help matters, though Jarrett’s eventual deal will come in short of that mark.

We’ll see what the future holds for Jarrett getting paid. He could make anywhere from $12-17 million a season with the market as it is for defensive tackles, and his management might want him to put on some strong 2018 tape to drive that number up from where Dimitroff and company might be at the moment.

Watch for November. The Falcons extended both T Ryan Schraeder and CB Robert Alford around that time in 2016, and we could see Dimitroff angle for that once more. The team didn’t have any major re-signings to take care of in March for guys with expiring contracts, so that could be when we see Jarrett’s deal get taken care of.

The team will get this one done, we think, and it’s just a matter of when. Don’t worry about it unless we hear rumbles of unrest later in the year.