The Atlanta Falcons are set to have a fair amount of cap space in 2024, and they can easily free up more by cutting ties with a few players who don’t have particularly strong ties to the new coaching staff. They’re also not likely to sink much in the way of cap space into their impending list of free agents.
The firing of Arthur Smith ensured that many of the players he liked and relied on in both Tennessee and Atlanta will not be back, while other players were never particularly likely to return as the Falcons turn over disappointing position groups.
With Raheem Morris having hired most of his staff, now is a good time to look ahead to the free agent class of 2024 and try to handicap who might return and who might be out the door. Let’s do so now.
QB Logan Woodside: Not returning
Woodside was an Arthur Smith guy, one who overlapped with him in Tennessee and served as the team’s third quarterback throughout the 2023 season, seeing some game action at the very end of the year. With no ties to the current coaching staff and no standout traits that would suggest he should stay as the team’s third quarterback, Woodside may well join Smith in Pittsburgh.
RFA QB/TE Feleipe Franks: Not likely to return
Like Woodside, Franks had a champion in Smith who is no longer with the organization. Coming off an injury that robbed him of the 2023 season and serving as a long-term project at tight end owing to his athleticism and interesting upside, Franks will have to get healthy but may well land with Smith himself. The only thing working in his favor is that the Falcons may actually be thin at tight end post-free agency and after a potential Jonnu Smith cut; if the coaching staff thinks there’s something there, there’s a slim chance he could return, especially at an original round tender. I just don’t expect it.
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