ATLANTA — The Sunday report of the Atlanta Falcons and defensive tackle Grady Jarrett being "not close" in contract talks shouldn't surprise anyone, as the NFL approaches the Tuesday deadline for teams designating their own prospective free agents with the franchise tag.
What are the potential complications with the negotiations?
From the Falcons' perspective, they likely want to cement Jarrett's contract status for the long term.
However, as a wonderful fallback option, the club can simply franchise-tag Jarrett for the coming season – at an estimated figure of $15.21 million.
According to Spotrac.com, a popular Web site for tracking NFL salaries, six defensive tackles currently possess long-term deals averaging $15 million or more (Aaron Donald, Fletcher Cox, Geno Atkins, Kawann Short, Gerald McCoy, Jurrell Casey), a likely starting point, negotiations-wise, for Jarrett's representation.
At the same time, Jarrett's people might also prefer an annual figure on par with Donald, the two-time NFL Defensive Player of the Year who inked a $141.89 million extension last summer.
Is Jarrett (two-year tally: 10 sacks, 23 tackles for loss, 29 QB hits) in the same production range of Donald (two-year tally: 31.5 sacks, 40 tackles for loss, 68 QB hits)?
Of course not; but then again, no one can match what Donald brings to table.
But with Jarrett potentially hitting NFL free agency in 10 days ... it never hurts to ask for Donald-type money.
For what it's worth, OverTheCap.com and Pro Football Focus have projected Jarrett for a five-year, $82.5 million deal, with $46 million guaranteed.
Spotrac, in turn, has a five-year projection of $76.2 million.
