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In a Godfather-esq fast and furious process, the Atlanta Falcons quickly agreed to terms with each of their rookies one by one on Monday, after not putting pen to paper for 2.5 months after the draft.
Terms of the contracts are getting revealed at this point, and it’s about what you would expect. The big fish of the draft class was first round pick A.J. Terrell out of Clemson, who is expected to start at cornerback from day one.
Atlanta Falcons ESPN reporter Vaughn McClure presented the details of his contract.
A.J. Terrell’s 4-year, $14,305,747 guaranteed rookie deal: Signing bonus of $7,964,180. Base salaries of $610,000 (2020), $1,260,261 (2021), $1,910,522 (2022), $2,560,783 (2023). Cap numbers of $2,601,045 (’21), $3,251,306 (‘22), $3,901,567 (‘23), $4,551,828 (‘24). 5th-year op.
— vaughn mcclure (@vxmcclure23) July 24, 2020
This signals a slight uptick in the pay scale for 16th overall selection Terrell over 2019’s number 16 pick Brian Burns, whose contract was four years for $13,540,182. The pay scale has kept increasing year over year, as evidenced by 2018 number 16 selection Tremaine Edmunds’ four year contract which was worth $12,659,544.
The Falcons hope that Terrell can be a cornerstone in the secondary, and if he is then they will be able to keep him for four years at a very reasonable rate before potentially exercising the fifth year option all first rounders are subject to as well.
Atlanta drafted Terrell to replace the departed Desmond Trufant, who signed a two year contract worth $20 million with Detroit, and for whom the Falcons will incur a dead cap hit of $5.8 million next offseason.