Falcons release DE Brooks Reed saving $4.5 million in cap space

The cuts are coming in waves at this point, and defensive lineman Brooks Reed is the latest casualty, per Reed’s Instagram account.

Reed spent four seasons in Atlanta after being one of the first free agent signings in the Dan Quinn era, back in the 2015 offseason. He was given a five year, $22 million contract with $9 million guaranteed to help bolster Atlanta’s bottom-tier defense.

Reed played in 60 games for the Falcons, and started 34 of them. He was signed as a linebacker (which is where he played all 60 of his games in Houston before coming to Atlanta), but was subsequently converted to a defensive end. He started 14 of Atlanta’s 16 games at DE in 2016, and played in all three playoff games during the Super Bowl run.

Reed totaled 101 combined tackles, 7.0 sacks, 10 tackles for a loss and 20 QB hits as a Falcon. He took a restructured pay cut to stay with the team in the 2017 offseason, and played in all 16 games (starting eight of them) in 2018.

Releasing Reed saves the Falcons $4.5 million in cap space — he was due to account for a $5.44 million cap hit this season, and the release carries with it a $940K dead cap hit.

Much thanks to Brooks Reed for his four years of service as an Atlanta Falcon, and best of luck to him moving forward.

We’ll always have his great game against the Seattle Seahawks in the 2016 Divisional Round, and his game-winning sack of Mike Glennon in the 2017 season-opener against the Chicago Bears, to look back fondly upon.