REPORT: Many Around NFL Believe Falcons Will Try And Trade Matt Ryan And Julio Jones Before Trade Deadline

The Atlanta Falcons picked up their first win of the season this past week when they defeated the Minnesota Vikings in Week 6.

But that doesn’t mean the Falcons aren’t thinking about having a major fire-sale ahead of the Nov. 3 trade deadline. According to ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler and Dan Graziano:

Atlanta is not the appealing job it was two years ago, however. This has the makings of a near-complete teardown, with some people around the league openly wondering whether quarterback Matt Ryan or even wide receiver Julio Jones will be shopped at the Nov. 3 trade deadline (their contracts would make that extremely difficult).

As Fowler noted, however, the contracts make both Ryan and Jones especially difficult to move on from and could result in a lesser return for teams possibly taking on a lot of money.

Ryan has a cap hit over $40 million next season, perĀ Spotrac. His contract has a potential out in 2022, but the dead cap hit is over $26 million. Jones has a combined cap hit of over $42 million over the course of the next two seasons, which is fairly hefty for a wide receiver, even of his caliber.

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The Falcons upcoming schedule is much easier than the schedule the had to start the season with games against the Detroit Lions, Carolina Panthers and Denver Broncos in the next three weeks. Those are all winnable games, and Atlanta could find themselves at 4-5 heading into it’s bye week.