After Kaleb McGary announced his retirement, the Falcons have found a veteran candidate to slot in at right tackle.
Jawaan Taylor has agreed to a one-year deal with Atlanta, ESPN’s Adam Schefter reports.
Schefter notes the deal is worth $5 million with another $1 million in incentives.
Taylor, 28, was released in March after three tumultuous seasons with the Chiefs. While he won Super Bowl LVIII with the club in 2023, he also amassed a whopping 54 penalties in his time with the club.
Taylor started all 17 games in 2023 before starting 16 in 2024 and 12 in 2025.
Taylor’s presence on the right side will be particularly important with lefty quarterbacks Michael Penix Jr. and Tua Tagovailoa atop the Falcons’ depth chart.
Falcons Clips
The Falcons are in the market for a new right tackle.
Kaleb McGary is retiring, his agent announced on Wednesday.
McGary, 31, was the No. 31 overall pick for the Falcons in 2019. He played 93 games with 92 starts for the club over six seasons before missing the entire 2025 campaign with a knee injury suffered during training camp.
McGary had signed a two-year extension with the Falcons in August of last year.
Elijah Wilkinson, who started at right tackle for Atlanta last season, has since signed with the Cardinals.
With lefty quarterbacks Michael Penix Jr. and Tua Tagovailoa atop the depth chart for Atlanta, the club’s right tackle position is that much more important.
Word earlier this week was that edge rusher James Pearce would not be at the Falcon’s voluntary workouts while facing multiple criminal charges and the team got to work without him on Tuesday.
Pearce is not on paid leave from the league and it is unclear when he might be back with the team. On Wednesday, head coach Kevin Stefanski said only that the Falcons are remaining in touch with the 2025 first-round pick.
“We’ve been in constant communication with his representation,” Stefanski said, via Marc Raimondi of ESPN.com.
The NFL has said that they are investigating Pearce’s situation. He is currently set for a court date in early May on four criminal charges stemming from a February incident with his ex-girlfriend.
While speaking to reporters from the league meetings in Arizona, Falcons head coach Kevin Stefanski said that the team will hold a competition for the starting quarterback job once Michael Penix is healthy enough to get on the field but it is still unclear when that might be the case.
Stefanski said on Wednesday that a timetable for Penix to be fully cleared to return from a torn ACL has not taken shape yet, but, via Will McFadden of the team’s website, that Penix is “right where he needs to be” at this point in the calendar.
The Falcons signed Tua Tagovailoa last month and he will be the other option at quarterback in Atlanta heading into the season. It’s a new offense for both players and Tagovailoa’s availability for offseason work could leave him with a leg up in the race to wind up as the starter.
That outcome will be a significant one for the Falcons’ overall outlook in 2026 and questions for Stefanski about Penix’s fitness will be frequent until the quarterback is back in action.
Kirk Cousins had multiple reasons to sign with the Raiders. Some substantive, at least one superficial.
“Best jerseys in pro sports I think,” Cousins told the team’s website on Monday. “I remember being in warm-ups once playing the Raiders and our head coach looked at me and said, ‘Those have to be the best jerseys that they are in pro sports.’ And I said, ‘You know what Coach, I have to agree. Those are really sharp.’”
Cousins didn’t specify the team for which he was playing at the time. He has a 3-0 career record as a starter against the Raiders — one with each of his three prior teams.
In 2017, Cousins and Washington beat the Raiders, 27-10. In 2019, Cousins at the Vikings beat the Raiders, 34-14. In 2024, Cousins and the Falcons beat the Raiders, 15-9.
Despite getting the victory in Las Vegas on a Monday night in December 2024, Cousins was benched the next day for then-rookie Michael Penix Jr. Cousins didn’t play again that season.
Now, he’s on track to start for the Raiders in Week 1, unless the Raiders don’t make quarterback Fernando Mendoza the first pick in the 2026 draft and unless Mendoza wins the job right out of the games.
As to his observation about the silver and black jerseys (along with the rest of the uniform), it’s hard to argue. There’s a reason the Raiders’ look has resisted becoming Nikefied in the 14 years since the company took over the apparel deal from Reebok, when change for the sake of change swept through the league.
While the team has needed a fix that so far remains elusive, there’s nothing broken about the Raiders’ uniforms. They’re simple and classic. And they’ve never felt compelled to embrace numbers that look different from the standard football-jersey numbers that were once nearly universal in the NFL.
The Falcons officially re-signed defensive lineman Elijah Garcia on Tuesday.
Garcia was tendered as an exclusive rights free agent, so he wasn’t able to talk to other teams over the last few weeks and he formally returned to the roster with the team’s offseason program getting underway this week.
The Falcons signed Garcia off of the Giants’ practice squad last November. He played in three games for Atlanta after appearing in four contests for the Giants.
Garcia also played five games for the Giants in 2024 and made five appearances for the Broncos over his first two NFL seasons. He has 28 tackles, two sacks, a forced fumble and a fumble recovery over the course of his career.
The Falcons’ offseason program is getting going this week and one of their key offensive players will be in the building.
Per Ian Rapoport of NFL Network, tight end Kyle Pitts is signing his franchise tender, putting him under contract with Atlanta for 2026 under a one-year deal worth $15.045 million.
As a franchise-tagged player, Pitts can still negotiate and potentially sign a multi-year deal with the Falcons through July 15.
The No. 8 overall pick of the 2021 draft, Pitts officially completed his rookie contract in 2025. He had his best season since his rookie year, catching 88 passes for 928 yards with five touchdowns. He was a second-team AP All-Pro selection.
In 78 career games with 72 starts, Pitts has caught 284 passes for 3,579 yards with 15 TDs.
Ian Cunningham is closing in on his first draft since becoming the Falcons’ General Manager and he wouldn’t mind having a little more ammunition in his arsenal once things get underway later this month.
The Falcons currently have five picks at their disposal and they do not have a first-round selection as a result of a trade with the Rams last year to move back into the first round in order to select edge rusher James Pearce. That’s part of the reason why the Falcons were so active in free agency, although Cunningham said the team is still looking for ways to add “more swings at the plate.”
“For us, it’s one of those things where we have to go into this thinking we only have five picks. That’s worst case,” Cunningham said, via the team’s website. “If we come out of it with just five picks, we come out of it with just five picks. We are already looking at different ways to potentially manufacture some more. But if it doesn’t work out, it doesn’t work out.”
Unless Cunningham is willing to sacrifice more future capital to add selections now, the Falcons will either be looking at trading down or trading current members of the roster in order to add selections.
The NFL will release its schedule next month, and among the games to watch are the Buccaneers’ NFC South matchups against the Falcons.
Bucs quarterback Baker Mayfield added some spice to an already spicy rivalry after the Falcons named Kevin Stefanski their new head coach. The two men spent two seasons together in Cleveland. It apparently was one season too long.
In a social media post, Mayfield accused Stefanski of not contacting him after a 2022 trade to the Panthers, accusing the coach of treating him “like a piece of garbage.” Mayfield also pointedly said, “Can’t wait to see you twice a year, coach.”
Last week, Bucs coach Todd Bowles told Josina Anderson of the Exhibit News Network that Mayfield and Stefanski would have to decide it on the field.
“I think that’s something that they have to figure out from that standpoint since we can’t have a boxing match where they get in the ring with each other and knock each other out,” Bowles told Anderson. “You know we’re going to back our guy Baker, and I’m sure they’re going to back their coach as well. It’s a division game, so it’s already going to be a tough-fought, hard-fought game, so it just adds to it.”
Stefanski took the high road in his response to Mayfield, who has since downplayed his initial remarks.
The Falcons will report for the first day of their offseason program on Tuesday, but edge rusher James Pearce is not expected to be there.
Ian Rapoport of NFL Media reports that Pearce will not be in attendance. Pearce faces several criminal charges after being arrested in Florida in February.
Pearce allegedly drove his vehicle into a car being driven by his ex-girlfriend and then tried to flee from police. He faces felony charges of charged with aggravated battery with a deadly weapon, fleeing and eluding police, and resisting an officer with violence for that incident and the woman, WNBA player Rickea Jackson, has accused Pearce of abuse on other occasions as well.
The NFL has said it will review Pearce’s case, but he has not been put on paid leave at this time. A trial date is set for May and it is unclear if Pearce will be back with the Falcons before the matter is resolved.
