Atlanta Falcons top 3 in 2023 cap space, rest of NFC South in debt

The Atlanta Falcons are playing the best football of any NFC South team as of now, even if they did lose to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers just a week ago — let’s just blame that on Jerome Boger, however.

Looking into the Falcons’ future, the 2023 offseason is shaping up to be an extremely vital time for this team going forward. They still have holes on the roster and they can fill some of those holes through free agency and the draft.

The good news for them is that they are going to be in the top three in cap space while their divisional rivals will be searching their couches for spare change.

Atlanta Falcons project to have third most cap space in 2023, while rest of NFC South is in the hole

When was the last time we could say that the Atlanta Falcons will be big players in free agency? It has been quite a long time that is for sure. After all, Thomas Dimitroff was never shy to hand out big contracts that had profound consequences in the future.

Well, the 2023 offseason should be a fun one for the Dirty Birds since they are projected to have the third most cap space in the NFL, according to Spotrac.com

What is better than having a ton of money to spend? When every single one of your divisional rivals has no money to spend, at least, until they make roster moves.

No amount of roster moves will be able to get the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, New Orleans Saints (especially), and the Carolina Panthers to the amount of cap space that the Atlanta Falcons have. Here is the projected cap space for each NFC South team and where they rank amongst the rest of the league:

• Atlanta Falcons: $56.5 million (3rd)
• Carolina Panthers: -$4.7 million (26th)
• Tampa Bay Buccaneers: -$47.2 million (31st)
• New Orleans Saints: -$66 million (32nd)

Here is another way to look at it that makes it look even more promising:

• Atlanta Falcons: $56,532,286 in cap space
• Rest of NFC South: -$118,036,741 in cap space

It really does open up a huge window for the Falcons going forward as they are the only team that has flexibility. Also, consider that the Saints and Panthers do not have a franchise quarterback and have traded away future picks while the Buccaneers won’t have a QB in the near future when Tom Brady retires.

Things are looking up for a young team that has already shown drastic improvements this year. The NFC South will soon be ours if Terry Fontenot continues to play his cards correctly.