The Atlanta Falcons have never been more desperate for contributors off the edge, but that's precisely why they signed Za'Darius Smith in the first place. With Jalon Walker and James Pearce Jr. both set to miss extended time in 2026, an army of rotation-caliber players wasn't gonna do the trick.
Yes, Smith is 33, turning 34 in September, but he's much better than the alternative. All his signing does is confirm the current pecking order that exists on Atlanta's defensive line, one that DeAngelo Malone was already on the outs of--but this move should all but confirm his release in the near future.
Malone started training camp on the active/PUP list in hopes of being activated, but it took a week of training camp for the Falcons to move him to the reserve/PUP list, ending his season. So it's not like he can use camp or the preseason to save himself when we haven't seen him play since November.
DeAngelo Malone doesn't have a place with the Atlanta Falcons anymore
This was Atlanta's third coaching staff that was willing to give the 26-year-old a chance to save himself, but it's all for naught. He failed to record a single sack or TFL in 2025, and hasn't really provided much for this team relative to expectations. And being a quality special teamer won't cut it.
If the Dirty Birds were willing to cut Troy Andersen due to injuries, it's not at all insane to suggest they could do the same to a player with less upside. And Malone was drafted a round later than Andersen in the 2022 Draft, so cutting one but not the other based on the draft price tag makes no sense.
To think that the Western Kentucky product was used with the pick the Falcons got in the Matt Ryan trade. They only brought him back after his rookie deal expired because they were able to sign him to a cheap prove-it deal in free agency--but has been unable to prove anything on account of his injury.
Malone missed the last seven games of 2026 due to a knee injury, which is the same issue that saw him get placed on the PUP list in the first place. While the former doesn't have a single NFL start to his name, Za'Darius Smith has 98 in 145 games, and has amassed an impressive 70.5 career sacks.
It's especially telling that the Falcons would choose an aging pass-rusher coming out of retirement over DeAngelo Malone. They've evidently seen all they need to from him, and while stashing him on PUP all year is possible, it'd be better to just pull the rip-cord on this failed experiment at this point.
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