The Atlanta Falcons will face a multitude of notable dilemmas in the free agency period later this month, including with the uncertain future of all-around offensive talent Cordarrelle Patterson.

Falcons general manager Terry Fontenot opted to sign Patterson to a mere one-year deal in the offseason last year, and it turned out to be a move that ended up surpassing expectations by a wide margin.

Patterson shined once again as a kick returner, and he also emerged as a keen offensive threat for quarterback Matt Ryan. Patterson wound up posting career highs across the board, including in yards from scrimmage (1,166) and total touchdowns (11).

In speaking at the 2022 NFL Scouting Combine, Fontenot was asked about Patterson’s future with the Falcons. The Falcons general manager did not rule out the possibility of re-signing him in the coming months, although his current priority is to free up cap space.

“The first thing we have to do is create low cap space,” Fontenot said. “Then, No. 1 is our players, and we have a lot of players … that we want to re-sign. … I won’t talk specifically about CP [Cordarrelle Patterson], but we have a lot of players that we want to re-sign and that’s important. … You’re never a player away.

“So, we have to look at each specific player, evaluate the player and look at the parameters of the type of contract that we can sign. What makes sense for us. We have to stay disciplined with that because we’re not trying to sign one player. We’re trying to build a team. So we have to make sure we assess the value and stay within our parameters with every player.”

As noted by Spotrac, the Falcons are currently set to be at $6.5 million over the cap. Fontenot may need to work some cap space magic in order to give his team a quality shot to re-sign key players and also to bolster the roster in free agency later this month.

Fontenot will keep a close watch on Patterson’s free agency period, and overall, he did come away from the wideout's stint in Atlanta last season pleased with how the coaching staff was able to exploit his potential on the offensive side of the ball.

“So with that, there are going to be some players that we’re going to be able to re-sign,” Fontenot said. “Some players are going to move on, and we understand that, but talking specifically about CP that’s an example of what we have to do this year and free agency. That was a situation where it was a month in free agency when we signed CP. He wasn’t getting the offers he wanted and again a month into it. We signed him. We had a clear vision for him.

“And it says a lot about our coaching staff and that they’re able to find what he does well, and he had the most productive season of his career as an offensive player. … We have a coaching staff that’s going to get the most out of players.”

From Patterson’s perspective, he has made it abundantly clear that he aspires to stay put with the Falcons. For one, he recently noted to ESPN that he would be open to retiring in Atlanta.

The ball is in the Falcons’ court regarding Patterson’s future with the team.