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Franchised defensive tackle Grady Jarrett is likely unhappy with his current contract situation. He played out his four-year deal and instead of hitting the market and signing a big-money deal, he was hit with the dreaded franchise tag. While many top defensive linemen are signing $100+ million deals, Jarrett is slated to make just $15.2 million.
Jarrett was slow to sign his franchise tag, finally making things official only a few days before the NFL draft. Maybe all the Ed Oliver talk resulted in one good thing for the team?
Mandatory minicamp is quickly approaching, and so is the threat of holdouts.
Falcons coach Dan Quinn told @TheAthleticATL that Julio Jones and Vic Beasley both will be here for manadatory mini-camp next week. As for DT Grady Jarrett: "I don’t know that yet. I anticipate he will. He hasn’t told me he’s not." (more)
— Jeff Schultz (@JeffSchultzATL) June 5, 2019
The good news is Julio Jones will not miss part of minicamp. No team wants to miss their best player throughout training. Also Vic Beasley will be around.
Schultz passed along more info from Quinn.
Quinn also said Julio Jones hasn't been absent entire offseason. He attended team-building exercise last month when Falcons trained with Navy SEALS but he couldn't do exercises because rehabbing his foot. (more) https://t.co/y8W3Oma1U7
— Jeff Schultz (@JeffSchultzATL) June 5, 2019
No word if Beasley was present or was simply not worth mentioning.
It appears Quinn has not heard anything concrete from Jarrett. His contract negotiations have extended for well over a year, so he may want to put the pressure on Thomas Dimitroff before putting his health at risk. A short minicamp holdout got Jones a decent raise just last year.
Last year, radio personality, current color analyst for the Falcons, and former Falcons quarterback Dave Archer said Jarrett was looking for Aaron Donald money (six years, $135 million). He then backtracked on that statement, saying he “grossly overstated” Jarrett’s contract demands. That rumor has persisted, with ESPN’s Vaughn McClure reporting that executives at the combine believe Jarrett is looking for a Donald deal. McClure noted that the dollar figure did not come from Jarrett or his agent.
If Jarrett was looking for a deal comparable to Fletcher Cox’s $102.6 million deal, it should have already been done. If he’s asking for $22.5 million per year, the delay makes a lot of sense. $22.5 million per year is bad quarterback money. It’d be nearly impossible for the Falcons to pay it.
We will find out a lot about how Jarrett feels about the negotiations next week.