Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan is heading into the final year of his contract, but the team doesn’t plan to get to the start of next season without making sure Ryan is locked up well beyond 2018.
At the team’s season-ending press conference on Thursday, General Manager Thomas Dimitroff called a new deal for Ryan the team’s “main focus” of the offseason.
Ryan’s contract for 2018 calls for a salary of $19.25 million and recent deals for Matthew Stafford and Derek Carr came with average salaries of more than $25 million. With Drew Brees and Kirk Cousins also in line for new deals this offseason and an Aaron Rodgers extension on the radar, that number for top quarterbacks is likely on its way up.
That will make it expensive to keep Ryan, but the Falcons made it clear on Thursday that it’s a price they are going to pay if given the opportunity.