Atlanta’s quiet offseason is going to heat up soon

Depending on how many other hobbies you have and how disgruntled you were by the last Falcons season, you may have found the last month or so to be either unbearably quiet or a welcome respite. Either way, it’s time to put your seatbelts back on.

That’s because the new league year is essentially a week-and-a-half away, and while the Falcons don’t figure to be big spenders in free agency, they can’t really stand pat. They’re more than $7 million over the cap and have real-to-pressing needs at nearly every position on the roster, not tot mention a quarterback with a staggering cap hit, a wide receiver no one is sure is going to be playing for the team in 2022, and a star defensive tackle whose contract expires at the end of the upcoming season. This team won’t address all those situations at once, but they all need to be addressed in some fashion.

Thus far, the biggest moves have been expected (the release of Dante Fowler), minor (a flurry of reserve/future deals), or delayed (everything the Falcons need to do to get under the cap, which they still haven’t done). The only exceptions were the release of Matt Gono and the addition of a pair of ex-Canadian Football League stars in Dee Alford and Brayden Lenius, but largely everything compelling about the Falcons this offseason has come in the form of rumors about player trades and the like.

Happily, that is about to change. The new league year starts in nine days and one hour from the publication of this article, and the Falcons need to be cap compliant before that. They’ll likely get there by some combination of cuts, restructures, trades and extensions, and we’ll know whether they intend to spend any money in free agency based on what combination of moves they make. The fact that we got one non-reserve/future signing and it was tight end Ryan Becker tells you just how quiet this offseason has been with the team’s brain trust closing out the 2021 rollercoaster and preparing for what’s next.

If you’ve been a little bored by the Falcons of late, in other words, that ought to change soon. Just don’t go into free agency expecting them to land Von Miller and you’ll likely find plenty to be interested in.