Although the Michael Penix Jr. ascent no longer makes Jake Matthews a blindside blocker, the Falcons are planning for the veteran tackle to help guide the young quarterback during his rookie-contract years.
Despite turning 33 earlier this year, Matthews has scored a fourth NFL contract. The Falcons are giving Matthews a two-year, $45MM deal, NFL.com’s Mike Garafolo reports. This does not look to be a wait-and-see agreement for 2026, as Garafolo adds Atlanta is guaranteeing its longtime left tackle $38MM at signing.
Matthews already was signed through the 2026 season, as the Falcons huddled up with him on a three-year, $55.5MM extension in 2022. GM Terry Fontenot authorized that extension, but Atlanta’s plan has changed significantly since. After keeping Matthews in the fold to help post-Matt Ryan, the Falcons bailed on their Marcus Mariota and Desmond Ridder experiments to both sign Kirk Cousins and draft Penix eighth overall. The Cousins part of that backfired, via a benching, and the veteran is trying to engineer a release. Cousins remains on the Falcons’ roster, for now, but Penix will be taking the reps with Matthews during the offseason program.
While the Falcons have long-term O-line pieces in Chris Lindstrom and Kaleb McGary, Matthews goes back to a previous era for the franchise. He and Grady Jarrett are the last players remaining from Atlanta’s Super Bowl LI roster. The Falcons chose Matthews in the 2014 first round (sixth overall), installing him as a Ryan blindside protector. Matthews blocked for the former MVP for eight seasons, earning first extension (five years, $72.5MM) in 2018. As the cap has climbed by more than $100MM since, Matthews continues to cash in.
Jake’s father, Hall of Fame O-lineman Bruce Matthews, displayed some of the greatest longevity in NFL history. The former Oiler/Titan mainstay played 19 seasons. Jake has logged 11 but has missed only one career game; that came all the way back in 2014. The Falcons have been able to count on Jake Matthews for more than a sixth of their existence. Pro Football Focus graded the LT stalwart as the league’s 15th-best tackle last season. Though, the third-generation NFL player has just one Pro Bowl (2018) on his resume.
This extension stands to reduce Matthews’ 2025 cap number, which was previously at $21.77MM. The Falcons came into Sunday in the red in terms of cap space, residing more than $5MM over before this Matthews payday. This could point free agent center Drew Dalman out the door. We placed Dalman 14th among free agents this year. He appears certain to become an eight-figure-per-year player soon. The Falcons having Matthews and Lindstrom as their O-line anchors, with McGary and Matthew Bergeron as other starters under contract, would keep them in decent shape if Dalman departs. They would need a center replacement, though.
One of the underrated offensive linemen that no one talks about
These days people only talk about Trent Williams and whoever
Go falcons
His whole family are HoF’ers. The Matthews have been around for 30 some years and all are/were studs.