The Atlanta Falcons are on the verge of losing offensive lineman Kaleb McGary to free agency after the team decided against using the franchise tag option on him ahead of Tuesday's deadline, per Jeremy Fowler of ESPN.
“The Falcons are not franchise tagging RT Kaleb McGary, per source,” Fowler reported. “One of the top offensive linemen available set to hit free agency.”
Prior to that, the Falcons also did not pick up the team's option on McGary in the 2023 NFL season worth $13.2 million.
McGary is coming off a solid campaign for the Falcons after years of lackluster performance that did not exactly line up with the vision of Atlanta when it selected him in the first round (31st overall) of the 2019 NFL Draft. In the 2022 NFL season, McGary started in all 17 games and received an 86.6 overall rating from Pro Football Talk, mostly on the strength of his terrific run-blocking — an area where he got an excellent rating of 91.6.
With McGary playing a key role in the offense of the Falcons' run-heavy attack in 2022, Atlanta managed to rank sixth in yards per carry, second in rushing yards per game, and ninth in rushing touchdowns per contest.
Given his fantastic showing in 2022, McGary should generate a fair amount of attention in free agency. Of course, there is the chance that the Falcons would ultimately retain him.
Over at Spotrac, Kaleb McGary has a calculated market value at the moment of $17.7 million per over the course of four years for a total of $70.9 million.