Atlanta Falcons: Winners and losers of franchise tag deadline

With the franchise tag deadline passed, who won and who lost for the Atlanta Falcons?

The Atlanta Falcons let Tuesday’s franchise tag deadline pass without any splashes. They elected, once again, to not use their franchise tag and will focus on signing players to long-term deals once free agency kicks off on March 15th.

Must Read: Countdown to free agency for the Atlanta Falcons.

There have only been three times that Atlanta has used a franchise tag. The most recent exhibit was Grady Jarrett back in 2019. And then the previous two were placed on punter Michael Koenen in 2009 and Brent Grimes in 2012. Grady is the only player they were able to come to a long-term agreement with.

So, it is a rarely used proposition and we will have to wait another year to see if they will use their tag again. There is actually a strong likelihood that they will end up using it as both Chris Lindstrom and A.J. Terrell (if they don’t pick up his fifth-year option which is unlikely) are due to be free agents. You could even throw Cordarrelle Patterson into the mix as well.

But let’s get back to the present, here are three winners and three losers for the Falcons following the franchise tag deadline.