Quarterback Matt Ryan has been the leader of the Atlanta Falcons since 2008.
The former league MVP led the team to the Super Bowl once but lost in a frustrating fashion to the New England Patriots.
It looks like the 36-year-old quarterback will also end his career in Atlanta given his huge cap hit that ESPN’s Field Yates alluded to.
Falcons QB Matt Ryan is currently scheduled to have a cap hit of $48,662,500 in 2022.
That would be the largest cap hit for any player in NFL history.
— Field Yates (@FieldYates) February 24, 2022
Yates tweeted, “Falcons QB Matt Ryan is currently scheduled to have a cap hit of $48,662,500 in 2022. That would be the largest cap hit for any player in NFL history.”
If the projected salary cap for the 2022 NFL season will be around $208 million, the four-time Pro Bowler will take roughly 23 percent of the team’s cap room.
There’s no sense releasing him either because he will still count for a crippling $40,525,000 in dead money.
Breakdown Of Ryan’s 2022 Cap Hit
The former Boston College standout signed a five-year, $150 million deal during the 2018 offseason.
Since then, he has agreed to constantly restructure his deal to free up cap space for the Falcons.
In 2019, he converted $8.75 million of his salary into a signing bonus to clear $7 million of cap space.
A year later, he transferred close to $19.5 million of his salary into bonuses to free up roughly $14.5 million.
In 2021, he cleared another $21 million to add $14 million to the Falcons’ salary cap.
Those conversions led to his enormous 2022 cap count, wherein $16.25 million of which is his base salary.
His signing bonus will be $9.3 million while his roster bonus counts at $7.5 million.
He also has a $2 million option and $13,612,500 from the restructured money to arrive at his huge cap hit.
As it stands, the Falcons are around $7 million over the cap based on the projected value for 2022.
It’s a must to free up as much financial room as possible to give Ryan a chance to compete for a playoff spot in what could be his final years in the NFL.
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