Atlanta Falcons: Former Pro-Bowler more than likely not returning in 2021

The Atlanta Falcons have a lot of decisions to make over the next few months.

One of the best aspects of the Atlanta Falcons bringing in a brand new general manager and the new coaching staff is they will have a lot of brand new eyes on this roster. No offense to former general manager Thomas Dimitroff but he looked at this staff with the same lens every season and the record reflected that.

There are a few players that the Atlanta Falcons will more than likely move on from because of this new regime as now pre-existing ties or relationships to anyone on this roster.

One of the biggest issues that Thomas Dimitroff and Dan Quinn had was the inability, to be honest about where a player was at after injuries. We have seen players across the league bounce back after major injuries but the Atlanta Falcons haven’t been as fortunate.

Over the years players like Vic Beasley, Desmond Trufant, and Takk McKinley had injury issues and never lived up to the expectations of past play and performances.

One of the players that will be under the microscope from this new staff and front office is former first-round pick, Keanu Neal.

Injuries have impeded a once-promising career for Keanu Neal.

Neal has not played a full season since his Pro Bowl year in 2017 and has missed a total of 29 games over the last three seasons. The Atlanta Falcons picked up the fifth year of his rookie contract back in April of 2019 but have decided to allow him to become an unrestricted free agent following the 2020 season.

When healthy, Keanu Neal was among the best safeties in the NFL, however, his inability to stay healthy has put the Falcons at a major disadvantage on the back end of the defense over the years and that has hurt the franchise in a major way.

New Atlanta Falcons defensive coordinator Dean Pees has said this team will blitz from every spot and just when the opposing offense is tired of the Falcons blitzing, they are going to blitz some more.

They are going to need safety that they can count on to be healthy and available and they just don’t have that in Keanu Neal. It will be an interesting free agent period for Neal as the Falcons are more than likely going to see what the market offers him before signing him to a new deal.

That means we more than likely will have seen Keanu Neal in an Atlanta Falcons uniform given their salary cap issues and while they will clear some cap space, they more than likely will not use it to resign Neal.