Atlanta Falcons re-sign Lorenzo Carter to team friendly deal

The Atlanta Falcons re-signed Lorenzo Carter to a two-year deal with the reported terms roughly averaging out to $4.5 million per season.  It is hard to imagine that Carter wouldn’t have gotten more if he went to the open market considering the immense talent and consistent pressure he has registered over the past three seasons.

Carter signing a team-friendly deal isn’t surprising considering that Carter was born in Atlanta Georgia and went to school in Athens drafted as a Georgia Bulldog. Returning to his home state for two more seasons is certainly a huge consideration.

There is also the fact that Carter is likely to start for the Falcons while going elsewhere could land him a better contract but not necessarily the same volume of snaps. From Atlanta’s perspective, the team brought back a productive edge rusher while still leaving plenty of room to add a star on the other side.

Leonard Floyd, Miles Murphy, and Khalil Mack are all great potential options for high-impact players who could line up on the opposite edge. Bringing back Carter at this price gives Atlanta a lot more flexibility on what they can do at the edge positions and less desperation with a known talent in Carter locked up for two seasons.

Carter has 18.5 career sacks and finished the 2022 season with 4.0 sacks on the year. While this isn’t great production it doesn’t fully tell the story of how successful Carter was and how great the pass rusher can be if the Falcons upgrade the pieces around him.

Bringing back Carter was the right decision and doesn’t hurt Atlanta’s cap space or ability to make splashy moves while bringing back a productive starter. Lorenzo seemingly gave Atlanta a hometown discount something the team and fans should remember moving forward.