The Atlanta Falcons have had a quiet, cautious sort of free agency. There’s little doubt they’ll fill their open roster spots, and they may well do so with quality players, but the possibility of an unexpected splash seems more and more remote.
We’ve talked a lot about the short-term reasons for that—the Falcons clearly didn’t love the top-level talent in this class, they think they can replace some of their better free agents with cheaper options, they simply don’t have a lot of cash on hand until a Matt Ryan and/or Jake Matthews extension goes through—but we haven’t spent much time at all talking about why they might be reluctant to tie up big dollars in players who will hit the cap hard in 2019 and beyond.