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The top news today is absolutely the Falcons keeping Grady Jarrett through 2022 on a new $68 million deal. The deal looked unlikely just this morning before it moved to hopeful then signed with time to spare.
The importance of getting a deal done with Jarrett. Not only is he one of the game’s best, young defensive linemen, but the Falcons need this deal done to move to other deals. Jarrett’s deal was just the first domino Thomas Dimitroff needed to knock down to get the Julio Jones and Deion Jones extensions ready.
Per ESPN’s Adam Schefter, Dimitroff is meeting with Jones’s agent on Wednesday.
Now that the Falcons have reached agreement on a $68 million deal with Grady Jarrett, Atlanta is turning its attention to LB Deion Jones. Falcons and Jones’ agent, Drew Rosenhaus, scheduled for face-to-face negotiations in Atlanta on Wednesday, per source. Another deal in works.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) July 15, 2019
Jones is almost certainly going to break the bank. In simpler times three years ago, there was concern he was too small to play middle linebacker. Now he’s the prototype for the league’s faster, more athletic linebackers.
Negotiations will be important as C.J. Mosley’s absurd $85 million deal makes things more complicated. Jones is almost certainly the better player, and the Jets fired their general manager only months after dishing out the deal. If Rosenhaus uses it as the starting point, Jones may very well play on the franchise tag in 2020.
For now, this is a great sign for the future. The Jarrett deal has cleared up an unknown amount of cap space in 2019. With a little more breathing room, the team can hopefully get both Julio Jones and Deion Jones locked up over the long haul.