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Atlanta’s best and most consistent defender is looking for a stellar rebound after the first major injury of his career.
In every great journey, there comes a point at which our hero faces a challenge he cannot immediately surmount. Having survived the wastes of poor Falcons teams past, having endured one of the most crushing losses a player can experience, and having left it all on the field over and over again for franchise, Grady Jarrett deal with something new and terrible in 2023: A season-ending injury.
Heading into last year, Jarrett had missed just three games in his NFL career. The ultra-durable team leader had been a fixture on this team and the franchise’s best defensive lineman basically since he arrived in Atlanta as a fifth round pick back in 2015, but in 2023, a serious injury limited him to just eight games. Jarrett has spoken at length about the difficulty of missing time and the long recovery, as well as how excited he is about the 2024 season.
“I can’t wait to get back on the field”
Grady Jarrett gets emotional talking about those that helped him through the first major injury of his career. #Falcons pic.twitter.com/8WozxaTOL2— Maria Martin (@Ria_Martin) June 12, 2024
The last coaching staff is gone, and now Jarrett’s recovery coincides with a fresh (if, in the case of Raheem Morris, also familiar) set of faces there and across the roster. Jarrett has been through this twice now, with Dan Quinn and Arthur Smith both earning their walking papers since he arrived in Atlanta, but this is the first time he’s had to come back from a half season away. The team’s appreciation for Jarrett is evident and has not waned, especially with Morris back, but his increasing age, recovery from injury, and contract status make this an important season for Jarrett. Because of his importance to the defense, it also makes this a critical year for the team.
Here’s a look at why I consider 2024 such a pivotal year for Jarrett and the Falcons, given that he himself is a pivotal player.
Why this year is important for Jarrett
Somehow, Jarrett is 31 years old. Interior defensive linemen can, if they stay healthy, play effectively into their mid-30s, and I’d be the very last person on earth to bet against Jarrett doing just that. Still, this is a big year for Jarrett for a few reasons, age very much being one of them.
Jarrett may not have another big payday in his future without a successful 2024 season, as he’ll be 32 next year in the final year of his deal and 33 in 2026 when he’s a free agent again. The Falcons can, as painful as it is to think about, easily cut ties with Jarrett heading into 2025 because he’ll only carry a little over $4 million in dead money versus $16-plus million in savings against the cap. To avoid the team thinking about that—or to have the Falcons rip up the final year of his deal and give him a new one—Jarrett probably needs a healthy, effective season.
That’s particularly true because the team just made a heavy investment along their defensive front, spending a second round pick on Ruke Orhorhoro, a fourther rounder on Brandon Dorlus, and a sixth rounder on Zion Logue. There’s room for Jarrett to be the standout and veteran presence he always been even with all those additions, but that picture is complicated and clouded if he does not return to form.
Why this year is important for the Falcons
In those eight games with Jarrett, the Falcons allowed an average of 102 yards per game on the ground, and after that, that number ballooned to 133 yards per game and Atlanta allowed 10 of their total 11 rushing touchdowns over the final nine weeks. While you can’t put all of that on the loss of Jarrett, the fact that he’s one of the best run defending interior defensive linemen in the NFL and the team was down both a great player and a great on-field leader clearly damaged the defense badly down the stretch, which helped fuel the team’s 3-6 finish after a 4-4 start to the year.
The 2024 season is intended to be a bounceback year for these Falcons—a long overdue one—and their level of investment in the defensive line is intended to help make that possible. If all goes well, players like Ruke Orhorhoro and Brandon Dorlus will be immediate contributors, lessening the need for the Falcons to lean so heavily on Jarrett and David Onyemata. But the statistics above tell a compelling story about how badly this team needs Jarrett, a player whose counting statistics are rarely among the league’s elite marks, but does so much to enable this defense to play at a higher level than they can without him on the field. His ability to be disruptive as a run defender and pass rusher is continually underrated, and any limitations for or injuries to Jarrett will unquestionably drag down the ceiling for the entire defense.
Does that sound dramatic? It should. The Falcons are even more reliant on youth and upside than they were a year ago, given that they’ve swapped out proven players like Calais Campbell and Bud Dupree for Bralen Trice and Orhorhoro, and that means the consistent high-level play Jarrett provides is both important to lift this group even if they’re terrific and absolutely vital to keep them afloat if they falter. I’d expect a relatively limited summer for Jarrett from the team, with an eye on ensuring he’s 100% when the games start, especially with such a rough stretch to begin the year.
There are real stakes for team and player in 2024, which makes this a pivotal year for both sides. Both the Falcons and Jarrett are chasing an elusive winning season, while Jarrett is also set to make his case for one last major contract, preferably from the team he has spent his entire career with.
Jarrett will, if the fates allow, finish his terrific career as an Atlanta Falcons icon. Regardless of whether that career stretches out another two years, three years, five years, or more, he will remain one of Atlanta’s most pivotal and potent defenders in 2024. If the Falcons do finally return to a winning season and field a quality defense this season, we shouldn’t lose sight of how important Jarrett will likely be to that outcome, and we ought to appreciate him while he’s here.