Alex Mack has been a stellar free agent signing for the Falcons, stabilizing a center position that had been shaky since Todd McClure left the NFL. Now he’s helping the Falcons out by converting some of his salary into a signing bonus, which is going to free up money to chase...well, someone. We’ll likely know soon enough.
The news comes to us from Field Yates, who reported this morning that the Falcons have quietly freed up $750,000 in room. That’s just shy of the $775,000 veteran minimum for players for 4-6 years of NFL experience. Of course, the Falcons could be freeing up space for any number of players (Dwight Freeney will be a popular suggestion), so I’m not going to presume it’ll be someone in that range.
As Aaron Freeman at FalcFans notes, the Falcons do have cap space, though less than any other team in the NFL. If it's not an immediate signing, it might just be about flexibility for the rest of the season.
#Falcons have ~$7M in cap space, which should be plenty for in season, but it's lowest amount in NFL rn: https://t.co/ArE6lO8nYq
— Aaron Freeman (@falcfans) September 7, 2017
Source: the Falcons converted $1M of C Alex Mack's $6.75M base salary into a signing bonus, creating $750,000 of cap space for 2017.
— Field Yates (@FieldYates) September 7, 2017
The Falcons are at the 53 man roster limit, so they’ll need to cut ties with a player like Nick Williams, Deji Olatoye, or Blidi Wreh-Wilson to make room for a new signing. If this move just happened—there’s no sense of when it did in Yates’ tweet—then chances are good we’ll see a move before the Bears game on Sunday.