2026 Is Really Our Year

Look, I know. The year after is always the year. But consider the following:

- In 2026, with Cousins' money mostly freed from the books, the Falcons may have upwards of $130M in space and roughly ZERO bad contracts on the books, potentially ZERO dead money.

- The core of the offense (Penix, London, Bijan, Lindstrom, Matthews, Bergeron, Mooney) will all be under contract on good-to-elite deals. A London extension could free even more space by then.

- Bates and Terrell will be the only defensive players on non-rookie deals. And both look like bargains at their current price.

I'm no Terry apologist. But TF's tenure has been marred by only two grave sins: The Pitts pick and the Cousins contract. Those may well be enough to get him (deservedly) fired. But he's otherwise been pretty shrewd about keeping the cap sheets clean, and very soon, this franchise may have the most valuable entity in the sport: a really good QB on a rookie deal.

My concern is that his tenuous job security puts us in a precarious spot this offseason, when limited resources and the anchor of Kirk's albatross deal really hamper the win-now moves available.

For example, is he going to extend or restructure an aging Grady Jarrett to free up immediate cap at the expense of future cap sheets? Same with Kaleb McGary? Is he going to get trigger-happy during the draft and mortgage a bit of future draft capital to go get a guy he likes, as he's done before? Is he going to trade a mid-round pick again for a flawed or aging defensive piece?

I'd like to win the division in 2025, and it's certainly possible. But the 2025 Falcons are not realistic contenders. We should not make moves for 2025 at the expense of 2026, when contention is actually in the realm of possibility. Thoughts?