The Atlanta Falcons’ main priority this offseason was to lock up quarterback Matt Ryan to a new contract. They haven’t been able to do that quite yet, but a deal might just be around the corner if general manager Thomas Dimitroff’s latest comments are anything to go by.
In an interview with 680 The Fan in Atlanta on Tuesday, Dimitroff said with regard to the Ryan contract negotiations that “I think we’re close.”
#Falcons GM Thomas Dimitroff tells @680TheFan that getting Matt Ryan a new deal is still the main offseason focus. Says "it's not a complicated process" and that he's "not kept up at night and it's a priority." Dimitroff also said, "I think we're close."
— Matthew Tabeek (@MatthewTabeek) April 3, 2018
Ryan, who is just over a year removed from winning NFL MVP and leading the Falcons all the way to the Super Bowl, has spent his entire 10-year career in Atlanta and has made four Pro Bowls. He fell way short of matching his numbers from his MVP campaign, but he still had a solid year as he threw for 4,095 yards and 20 touchdowns last season.
Ryan is set to make $19.25 million in 2018, the final year of the five-year, $103 million extension he signed back in 2013. He just saw Kirk Cousins set the market for quarterbacks with his fully-guaranteed three-year, $84 million deal in free agency this offseason.
That’s likely the sort of deal Ryan and his agent will be looking to get from the Falcons. Although, Ryan doesn’t quite have the same leverage as Cousins did, so it remains to be seen whether he can land a similarly lucrative deal.
But based on Dimitroff’s optimism in his latest comments, the wait to find out if Ryan succeeded in getting full value from the Falcons may not be much longer now.
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