3 Players on the Atlanta Falcons cap that will play elsewhere

The Atlanta Falcons are in a terrible cap situation this season after years of terrible deals and an inability to hit on draft picks. Atlanta has opted to go all-in on a rebuild to eat as much cap as they can this season and create room for next season.

So far this approach appears to be working as Atlanta will head into the 2023 off-season with well over $100-million in cap space and Cordarrelle Patterson, Kyle Pitts, Jake Matthews, A.J. Terrell, and Calvin Ridley still all under contract.

Deion Jones is currently projected to be under contract as well but it wouldn’t be shocking to see the linebacker dealt to create even more space. The promise of the future does little, however, to off-set just how terrible this season is likely to be.

With a bad defense, offensive line, and virtually no receivers Atlanta looks to be in the running for the first pick of the draft next season. Mariota is a subpar quarterback who is being given a terrible offensive situation. Outside of Jake Matthews and Kyle Pitts who does he have to count on from this Atlanta roster?

Even with a great rookie class, it is likely going to be a painful year of losing before Atlanta turns their franchise in the right direction.  They simply lack the cap space to make enough moves to improve in large part due to these three massive dead cap hits.