The Falcons have informed wide receiver KhaDarel Hodge that they are releasing him, according to Jordan Schultz of The Schultz Report.
Hodge went on injured reserve in December with a shoulder injury.
In 12 games last season, Hodge totaled three receptions for 31 yards on offense and nine tackles on special teams. He played 10 percent of the Falcons’ offensive snaps and 72 percent of the special teams snaps in the games he played.
Hodge earned Pro Bowl honors in 2024 for his special teams play.
He spent four seasons with the Falcons after one season with the Rams (2018), two with the Browns (2019-20) and one with the Lions (2021).
The NFL’s Rooney Rule calls for teams that develop minority executives or coaches to receive a pair of third-round picks when they move on to other clubs as General Managers and head coaches, but the Bears are currently not expected to receive those compensatory selections after Ian Cunningham left the team to become the GM in Atlanta.
According to the NFL, the Bears are not getting those picks because president of football Matt Ryan is the top football executive in Atlanta. Ryan said earlier this month that Cunningham is the one “driving the ship” and Cunningham said at a Scouting Combine press conference on Tuesday that the Bears should be getting picks based on his understanding of the rule.
“I haven’t had much time to really dive into the wording of it,” Cunningham said. “It was always my interpretation that if a general manager gets hired, that team would receive two third-round picks. I’m the General Manager. I was hired. I would think that they would get two third-round picks. I don’t know the wording of it. That’s just my perspective. I wouldn’t be sitting here if it weren’t for them giving me that job and helping me grow to get this job right now.”
Bears GM Ryan Poles called it “a little odd” that the Chiefs got picks when he was hired in Chicago and called the entire rule “strange,” but that it is also “very clear” that the Bears should be receiving those picks in the current situation.
The Falcons won’t let tight end Kyle Pitts hit free agency.
Pitts got the franchise tag today, the team announced.
“We’re not in the business of letting go really good players,” Falcons General Manager Ian Cunningham said.
The tag means Pitts has the option to sign a one-year guaranteed contract at a salary of about $16 million for 2026, or he can try to work out a long-term contract with the Falcons. It’s also still possible that the Falcons could agree to trade Pitts to another team that negotiates a long-term deal with him. If he hasn’t signed a long-term deal by July 15, he could only play on a one-year deal for 2026.
The 25-year-old Pitts was the fourth overall pick of the 2021 NFL draft and has played out his five-year rookie contract. He has developed into a solid player, even if he has never made the kind of impact the Falcons expected him to make when they drafted him. The Falcons believe he has a lot of good football ahead of him.
When Ryan Poles left the Chiefs to become the Bears’ General Manager in 2022, the Chiefs got two third-round compensatory picks because Poles is Black and the NFL rewards teams that develop minority head coaches and GMs. Poles is not a fan of that NFL policy.
“I’ll be honest, I think it is a little strange,” Poles said. “At the end of the day you should want to develop your staff regardless of the color of their skin. I think that’s important. I think we take a lot of pride with the Bears in how we have our setup. I take a lot of pride in that, so to be compensated for that is a little strange.”
The Chiefs used one of those third-round picks to draft linebacker Leo Chenal and used the other in a trade for wide receiver Kadarius Toney. Poles said he found it odd to see his old team get players because of him.
“I saw the Chiefs get a pick because of me and then I watch that player go and play, it’s just a little odd,” Poles said. “But at the end of the day if they think that’s what’s best to help incentivize, that’s what they wanted to do.”
The rule is relevant to the Bears this offseason because Ian Cunningham, who is Black, left to become GM of the Falcons — but the Bears are not expected to receive compensatory picks for Cunningham because Matt Ryan, not Cunningham, is viewed as the Falcons’ primary football executive. Poles said that while the rule doesn’t change the way he operates, he does wish the Bears would benefit from it as long as it’s in place.
“At the end of the day, that’s not the purpose of why we develop our staff, but if that’s the rule they have in place, then I think it’s very clear in this situation what should happen,” Poles said. “But we’ll see what they think.”
Poles seemed to be suggesting that the Bears are still holding out hope that they’ll receive two compensatory picks, which would require the NFL reversing course from what it previously said about Ryan being the primary football executive. Those two picks would be helpful to Poles, even if he questions the wisdom of the rule behind them.
Quarterback Kirk Cousins remains a member of the Falcons, but that will not be the case for much longer.
The Falcons reworked Cousins’s contract to move the bulk of his 2026 salary to 2027 and set up a vesting date of March 13 that would guarantee him $67.9 million for the 2027 season. The size of that guarantee set the stage for Cousins to be released before that date and General Manager Ian Cunningham confirmed that is what is going to happen on Tuesday.
Cunningham said on 92.9 The Game that the Falcons have told Cousins that they will release him when the new league year begins on March 11.
“Obviously, the contract structure allows that to occur,” Cunningham said.
Designating Cousins as a post-June 1 cut will allow the Falcons to spread out his remaining cap hit over the next two years and the move will allow Cousins to hit the open market at the start of free agency. Cunningham’s announcement also lets teams looking for quarterback help know that Cousins will definitely be available and that will allow them to make plans with that in mind.
