Falcons Clips
The Falcons have a serious injury concern.
Per a joint report from NFL Network, Atlanta fears edge rusher Jalon Walker tore his ACL during Tuesday’s practice.
He’s set to have an MRI to confirm the injury.
Walker was carted off the field on Tuesday, with players around him taking a knee as he was loaded onto the cart.
The No. 15 overall pick of the 2025 draft, Walker registered 5.5 sacks with five tackles for loss, nine quarterback hits, and two forced fumbles in his 15 games as a rookie.
The Falcons will be hoping for some positive news about linebacker Jalon Walker’s condition on Tuesday afternoon.
Walker was carted off the field during practice at training camp. Reporters at the workout said that Walker appeared to suffer a left leg injury and that other players took a knee as he was helped to the cart.
Walker was a first-round pick last year and he finished his rookie season with 36 tackles, 5.5 sacks, two forced fumbles and a fumble recovery.
The Falcons drafted Walker and James Pearce in the 2025 first round to bolster their pass rush. Pearce is facing a possible suspension as a result of a domestic violence arrest this offseason, so bad news on Walker could leave the Falcons without both players for the start of the season.
The Falcons got their deal done with Bijan Robinson on Tuesday, locking up the running back with a lucrative four-year contract extension.
Head coach Kevin Stefanski told reporters in his Tuesday press conference that the vibe between Robinson and the team remained “very amicable” as Robinson staged his hold-in while awaiting his second pro contract.
“I know you guys saw the news on Bijan, obviously very excited for him, for us,” Stefanski said. "[We] just knew throughout this process that there would be a process and felt good about where we were. But, I think everybody understands how we feel about Bijan the person, Bijan the player.”
Robinson has not been practicing, which means he’ll need a little time to get up to speed. But that shouldn’t be much of an issue with over a month before Week 1.
“He’s eager — beyond eager — to get out there,” Stefanski said. “So, on that note, we’ll slowly get him back in there. It won’t be full go and let him go — we’ll have a plan here over the next, call it, week to ramp him up.”
Robinson led the league with 2,298 yards from scrimmage last season, having recorded 1,478 yards rushing and 79 catches for 820 yards.
Veteran defensive tackle Marlon Tuipulotu is headed to Atlanta.
The Falcons announced Tuipulotu’s signing on Tuesday. Linebacker DeAngelo Malone was moved from the active/physically unable to perform list to the reserve one to create a roster spot.
Tuipulotu spent the last two seasons with the Chiefs, but was on the practice squad for most of the 2025 campaign. He appeared in five games for Kansas City and had five tackles.
Tuipulotu was with the Eagles for three seasons before moving to the Chiefs. He had 43 tackles, three sacks and a fumble recovery for Philadelphia.
Malone has been a regular on special teams in Atlanta for the last four seasons. He re-signed with the team in April.
When it comes to running back contracts, much of the focus has been on the guys who are (or, as to one of them, were) holding in: Falcons running back Bijan Robinson and Lions running back Jahmyr Gibbs.
There’s another running back who wants a new deal. But he has been practicing (and, in turn, risking the kind of injury that would immediately end all negotiations and give Taylor no security beyond 2026).
While it remains to be seen whether, and what, Gibbs gets paid, Taylor’s new deal could be coming. There’s talk that Taylor may end up with a two-year extension.
Taylor, who signed a three-year, $42 million extension in 2023 after negotiations that got contentious and at times ugly, is entering the final year of his contract. He’s due to earn a base salary of $11.98 million with per-game roster bonuses that total $1.02 million.
Taylor apparently learned about the new Robinson deal from reporters, during a Tuesday press conference.
“I gotta go talk to my agent, too,” Taylor said, via James Boyd of The Athletic. “I have faith, so I’m gonna tap in and check in with him, now that you guys broke the news to me.”
For Taylor, 27, this is likely his last shot at a big contract. And if it’s going to be a two-year extension, Taylor could match the Robinson new-money APY of $22.25 million with a three-year, $57.5 million deal.
That would put Taylor at a total average of $19.167 million through 2028.
We’ll see where it goes. But, again, the fact that he’s practicing means there’s a non-zero chance any and all pending offers will instantly go away.
With the new contract for running back Bijan Robinson, the Falcons have recently given big deals to four young players who have become part of the nucleus of the team.
Beyond Robinson, the Falcons have extended 2021 first-round tight end Kyle Pitts (three years, $54 million), 2022 first-round receiver Drake London (four years, $141 million), and 2023 second-round guard Matthew Bergeron (four years, $96 million).
While some could reasonably quibble about the value of the various contracts when considering the players’ on-field accomplishments to date (except for Robinson, who was a bargain), the new regime in Atlanta clearly regards all four players as key pieces for the present and foreseeable future.
That raises a question. Who drafted those players? It was former G.M. Terry Fontenot. Although the Kirk Cousins-Michael Penix Jr. misadventure from 2024 likely doomed everyone whose fingerprints were on those bang-bang decisions that blew up for the Falcons, Fontenot clearly did his job capably when it comes to selecting players whom the Falcons have since compensated as “keepers.”
The other side of the coin is the question of whether the Falcons may be overcommitting cash and cap space to Pitts, London, and Bergeron. Each contract represents a prediction that they’ll earn the money. If they do, great. If they don’t, the Falcons could end up in a cap crunch with not much to show for it.
Through it all, the Falcons are close. They finished in a three-way tie for first place in the NFC South last year. If they can get consistency from the quarterback position, they could (and arguably should) win the division — especially since their new coach is a two-time coach of the year who has instantly acquired a more capable across-the-board roster than he had during his six seasons in Cleveland.
And who no longer has to compete with the Ravens, Steelers, and Bengals.
With Falcons running back Bijan Robinson getting a new contract that pushes the new-money APY at the position from $20.6 million to $22.25 million, Lions running back Jahmyr Gibbs has acquired an important data point for his own talks.
Will Gibbs try to match Robinson’s number? Will Gibbs try to beat it? Will Gibbs try to blow it away?
It’s no coincidence that the initial reporting on the Robinson deal spoke not in terms of the new-money APY of $22.25 million but the maximum value of $25 million per year. Given the overall skillsets and impacts of Robinson and Gibbs, both should have been trying to get to at least $25 million per year in new-money APY.
Robinson will get there only if he hits the targets for the various incentives and/or escalators. Gibbs still has a chance to get there with his base APY.
And when it comes to the new-money APY — a sort-of fugazi way to value contracts but the accepted norm used throughout the league (except when it leads to ridiculous results) — the old money becomes a factor. Remember, there are no true extensions. Robinson’s new three-year deal wonn’t get stapled onto the end of his two remaining years. He’ll have a brand-new five-year deal, which folds the existing cash from 2026 and 2027 into 2028, 2029, and 2030.
Robinson was due to make $3.744 million in 2026 and $11.323 million in 2027. That’s a total of $15.067 million in “old money.” Gibbs is due to make $3.183 million in 2026 (he was drafted four spots lower than Robinson) and $14.293 million in 2027 (he earned a higher fifth-year option based on his performances in 2023, 2024, and 2025). That’s a total of $17.476 million in “old money.”
Robinson’s lower old-money total makes it easier to get a higher new-money average on his five-year deal. If Gibbs merely matches Robinson’s new-money APY, Gibbs will need to make $2.409 million more than Robinson over the next five years.
In other words, if Gibbs signs the exact same five-year deal that Robinson will sign, Robinson will have the higher new-money APY, which means he’ll be regarded as making more than Gibbs. At a minimum, Gibbs will want (and should try to get) at least $2.409 million more over the next five years than Robinson will receive.
That nuance won’t matter if Gibbs and his agents hold the rope for a real $25 million per year APY. That would require a five-year, $92.476 million contract for Gibbs.
Putting it in those terms, is a five-year deal that pays out an average of $18.49 million per year from signing a good deal for the Lions? Hell yes.
Flipping it back to Robinson, the combination of the old money and the new money results in a five-year, $81.817 million base deal. At $16.36 million per year over the next five years for arguably the best player in all of football, that’s a great deal for the Falcons.
It underscores the fact that the best running backs in the NFL aren’t getting their fair share. Robinson opted to accept a new-money APY bump of $1.65 million over the prior record. That doesn’t mean Gibbs will do the same thing.
If he takes that position, he’ll be more than justified in doing so. Because if Gibbs were available to any team right now, they’d be lining up around the block to give him a five-year, $92.476 million contract.
Bijan Robinson has not been practicing at Falcons training camp amid contract negotiations, but it looks like it is time for him to get on the field.
According to multiple reports, Robinson has agreed to a three-year extension in Atlanta. Robinson was under contract through 2027 with an $11.323 million salary locked in for the final year after the Falcons exercised their fifth-year option on his rookie deal.
The extension is reportedly worth up to $75 million with $51 million in guaranteed money and $37 million at signing. The base value is $66.75 million, which makes Robinson the highest-paid running back in the league in average annual salary.
Robinson may not remain in that spot for long, however. Lions running back Jahmyr Gibbs and Colts running back Jonathan Taylor are also looking for extensions, so the picture at the top could change in the near future.
Wherever Robinson winds up, the move is the latest in a series of big deals for members of the Falcons offense. Wide receiver Drake London, tight end Kyle Pitts, and guard Matthew Bergeron have also signed long-term deals with the team this offseason.
As the saying goes, the market is the market. But what is the market?
It’s an important question as it relates to Falcons running back Bijan Robinson and Lions running back Jahmyr Gibbs, as they hold-in (wisely) pending new contracts.
The running back market is currently led by Eagles running back Saquon Barkley, with a new-money APY of $20.6 million. The prevailing view would be that Barkley’s deal becomes the bar that Robinson and Gibbs should be trying to nudge a little bit higher.
The other side of it is that they should be blowing the whole thing up.
The receiver market is north of $42 million. Who would you rather have on your favorite team? Robinson or Gibbs — or Seahawk receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba, the current highest-paid receiver in the NFL?
How about Robinson/Gibbs or Bengals receiver Ja’Marr Chase, who pushed the receiver number to $40 million last year?
The question, however it’s resolved, is far closer than the gap between what Smith-Njigba/Chase are making and where the top of the running back market currently resides.
That’s not to say all veteran running backs should be making considerably more, even if they should. The best running backs touch the ball more often than the best receivers. The best running backs present defenses with a player who constantly needs to be tracked, wherever they go and whatever they do. The best running backs open up the entire offense.
But they also present a much greater risk of injury, given the traffic of large torsos and limbs around and through which they constantly run. They are, at any given time, one play away from not being able to play for the rest of the season. The teams don’t want to tie up that much cap and cap space in such hazards.
For now, the question focuses on Robinson and Gibbs. Should it be a matter of getting them to $21 million or $22 million per year, or should they be north of $25 million?
If Robinson or Gibbs were currently available to any team, wouldn’t they get at least $25 million per year?
That’s likely the biggest issue the Falcons and Lions are facing. In Atlanta, former head coach Raheem Morris repeatedly said last year that Robinson is the best player in the league. In Detroit, the Lions have reconfigured the roster to make Gibbs the workhorse.
They’re still young; both are 24. They’re in their primes, with plenty of tread on the tires. This is the time for them to get as much as they can. And it’s easy to argue that they should get something closer to what the best receivers get than where the top of the running back market currently sits.
Falcons running back Bijan Robinson is not fully participating in training camp as he seeks a new contract. Falcons head coach Kevin Stefanski is not concerned about that.
Asked about his own communications with Robinson, Stefanski declined to get into specifics, but he said he was confident that the two sides are doing everything they can.
“I don’t think it’s fair to share those types of things,” Stefanski said. “We all trust in the process of what’s going on.”
Stefanski says he doesn’t hold it against Robinson that he is choosing not to practice until he gets the contract he wants.
“The NFL, you understand different things come up via all sorts of things, and contracts obviously are a part of that. It doesn’t change relationships,” Stefanski said.
It is highly likely that the Falcons and Robinson will agree to a new deal before the season starts. Until then, Robinson will watch practice, and Stefanski sounds OK with that.
