The Falcons messed up big time with Dante Fowler signing

The Atlanta Falcons have not had any good luck when it comes to finding pass rushers over the past decade—whether that be in the draft or free agency.

The bad luck and bad evaluation of talent continued when Thomas Dimitroff decided to sign Dante Fowler Jr. in 2020. Now here we are in 2022 and it looks exponentially worse on the surface to the casual fan as the Falcons have decided to cut ties with the former third overall selection of the Jaguars.

More bad news lies under the surface when it comes to the Falcons mistake in signing Fowler

So, looking at it from the average fan’s view, whether they be a Falcons fan or not, it looks like a downright horrible signing. Fowler was inked to a three-year, $45 million back in 2020. He was supposed to be a big key to the team finally finding a pass rush, but boy did it fall flat on its face.

Dante Fowler Jr. went from having 11.5 sacks in one year as a Los Angeles Ram to having 7.5 sacks in two years as a Falcon. The Falcons have now cut him at a loss of $4..6 million in dead cap, with a whopping zero dollars in saved cash.

Unfortunately, that is not where the pain ends with this.

Look back on who else the team could have signed and were rumored to be in the hunt for—Robert Quinn.

Robert Quinn ended up signing with the Chicago Bears on a five-year, $70 million dollar contract. Now that may look like a lot more money than Fowler got, but it really is not.

Fowler was signed to an annual average of $15 million compared to Robert Quinn’s $14 million. Fowler also only received one million less in guaranteed money. Essentially the Falcons paid more for Fowler than they could have for Quinn, in theory.

Now let’s compare the stats for these two players.

In the first year, Fowler actually accumulated more sacks than Quinn did with three sacks compared to Quinn’s two sacks. Really it seemed like both of these teams were regretting these contracts, but in year two with their new teams is when the stats ended up lopsided.

Fowler totaled 4.5 sacks and Quinn had the second-most in the entire NFL with 18.5. The decision to not pull the trigger on Quinn is now haunting the Falcons big time.

Also, keep in mind that the Falcons as a team had half a sack less than Quinn did by himself.

Safe to say the Atlanta Falcons, yet again, made the wrong decision when it comes to finding a pass rusher.