Atlanta Falcons need to find Grady Jarrett a running mate
Finding Grady Jarrett a running mate or two should be the Atlanta Falcons biggest concern this offseason.
Atlanta Falcons defensive tackle Grady Jarrett cannot do this on his own; he has to have help from somewhere. Despite having a deep rotation of Jack Crawford, Tyeler Davison, Allen Bailey, John Cominsky, and Deadrin Senat, Jarrett was on his own most of 2017, 2018 and 2019.
Looking at the guys that are available, general manager Thomas Dimitroff has to come up with something magical during free agency.
We can all point to the 2020 NFL draft and assume that most of the help is going to come from there and in several cases, it will. However, Dimitroff cannot leave the defensive line up to chance and hope that he is able to draft a stud upfront when there are a couple guys he should target in free agency.
Jack Crawford is more than likely going to come back to Atlanta in 2020. While he is an unrestricted free agent (UFA), his $3 million per year market price is attractive to a cash strapped team and all indications are he enjoyed his time here in Atlanta and wants to come back.
Looking out at the UFA market, there is one name that jumps out and would be a welcome addition to the defensive line and that is Jordan Phillips. The 27-year-old is coming off of a 10 sack year for the Bills and is going to command around $6 million a year, which would be nearly $2 million more than he made in 2019.
As far as a replacement for Vic Beasley, who knows what the front office is thinking. There are several big-name defensive ends available – Jadeveon Clowney, Ndamukong Suh, Derek Wolfe, etc. but they are either well past their prime or not worth their perceived market value or in Clowney’s case been just as inconsistent as Beasley was with a much higher price tag.
Under no circumstances should Thomas Dimitroff entertain $15 million a season for Clowney, even if he was able to make room for the contract.
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The Atlanta Falcons are once again not expected to be big players in the 2020 free-agent market, but it would be nice to be surprised and see the club make one nice unexpected move to show they are serious about making a run in 2020.