The Atlanta Falcons have been taking advantage of the summer break to extend many of their franchise cornerstones before the season. First it was Drake London, then Kyle Pitts, then Matthew Bergeron, and now Bijan Robinson became the latest offensive player to cash in over the summer.
After a brief hold-in, the Falcons finally paid up. They signed their superstar running back to a three-year, $66.75 million contract extension (that can get to $75M with incentives) while his $22.25 million in AAV shattered the running back market and made Bijan the highest-paid running back in NFL history.
Between the holy trinity on offense and Bergeron, Atlanta's front office has spent a lot of money this summer, but thankfully this should be the end of it. The Falcons still have players they would like to keep long-term, but none pressing enough that those deals should be signed before the season.
The Atlanta Falcons don't have to extend anyone else until after the season
The Falcons are still hoping to extend Zach Harrison, Divine Deablo, and Jessie Bates III across the coming months, but they can get away with not paying any of them before September begins. In fact, they're in a position where they may not need to pay Bates at all because of Xavier Watts' emergence.
Of these three players, Deablo is by far the most important to retain--especially now that he's set to take on Kaden Elliss' role as the defense's green dot. He had a breakout season in his first with the Dirty Birds, and his elite athleticism made him the perfect player to line up in the middle of a defense.
However, Atlanta isn't going to extend the 27-year-old until they see how he handles the new role. Deablo is quite a divine player, but is he worth top-10 linebacker money? We'll see in a few month's time. Right now, the only course of action is to allow him to play out the final year of his contract.
As for Harrison, he's entering his own contract year. but hasn't done much this summer. He suffered a season-ending knee injury midway through last season, but was placed on the active/non-football injury list to begin training camp despite taking part in OTAs and mandatory minicamp back in June. However, he should build on his breakout season from before the injury.
Bates is the interesting one. The 29-year-old has not missed a game across three seasons with the Falcons, and the three-time Second-Team All-Pro will command the most money of these three on a new deal--but by the time next season rolls around, he'll be 30, so it'd be easy to just let him walk.
The Falcons have three players entering contract years they should want to extend, but now that the more pressing extensions have been signed this summer, we'll have to wait for anything else.
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