Falcons restructure Deion Jones contract for $4 million in additional cap space

The Falcons cap space has arguably been the biggest challenge new general manager Terry Fontenot has had to take on. His max salary-to-bonus conversion for Matt Ryan was necessary to get under the salary cap in time for the 2021 NFL league year but everyone knew that more had to be done.

The two remaining players that made sense to restructure or extend? Grady Jarrett and Deion Jones. Well, it looks like Fontenot has done just that with the latter.

This move is an interesting one. Instead of just simply converting a portion of his salary to a bonus to defer to future years, Jones has agreed to defer $4 million of his salary until 2022 in exchange for making his 2022 base salary fully guaranteed. This gives the Falcons $4 million in cap space this year and it gives Jones the security of knowing he’s going to be around in 2022 as well. Given that the salary cap is expected to jump back up a good bit in 2022, this move makes a ton of sense for both sides.

The only question now is how this cap space will be used. Will the team use it to pursue additional free agent options? Or is this getting things ready to sign the upcoming draft class? Stay tuned to the Falcoholic to find out.