Atlanta Falcons Diving Into the Void (Years) with Latest Contracts

The new Atlanta Falcons regime has been aggressively maneuvering around the salary cap with their latest contract extensions.

Kyle Pitts Sr. signed a three-year, $53 million contract with the Atlanta Falcons, but only carries a $4.6 million cap hit thanks to void years. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

With all of the changes in the Atlanta Falcons front office this past season, there was a move that went mostly unnoticed but is already having an impact. That move was the hiring of Bryce Johnston as the Senior Vice President of Football Administration/Senior Personnel Executive. 

This is a big title that pretty much just means Johnston is in charge of all contract negotiations and the team's cap management strategy. Johnston has had plenty of work to do early in his tenure with the team, extending the contracts of wide receiver Drake London, running back Bijan Robinson, guard Matthew Bergeron, and tight end Kyle Pitts. 

Those contract extensions included a bunch of void years, which many football fans have become used to hearing recently. But what is a void year and what does it do? 

A void year is essentially “fake” years added to the end of a contract to help spread out the cap hit over more years. The signing bonus cap hit will be spread out across these void years as long as the player stays with the team he signed the contract with. Teams can add up to five void years in a contract.

This allows teams to be more flexible with their cap space now at the risk of it coming back to bite them in the future if the player decides to leave. A new contract or extension can include some of the money that was pushed into void years to avoid the balance coming due all at once.

This void year strategy has gained popularity recently and was heavily used by Johnston's former employer, the Philadelphia Eagles, where he served as a cap space strategist. 

The strategy works well at creating some extra cap space and doesn’t really have any drawbacks as long as the players re-sign with the team and your owner has a lot of cash on hand to give out large signing bonuses. 

So how did Johnston apply this void year strategy to the Falcons' recent contract extensions? 

To start, there are four void years applied to Pitts' extension, and five applied to London, Robinson, and Bergeron’s deals. In total, that is 19 void years for signing bonuses to be extended over. 

The result is over $10 million in cap savings for this year, despite handing out massive extensions. The team has the flexibility to use on plugging holes that are bound to pop up as the season progresses, including a possible edge replacement following the Jalon Walker injury. The Falcons can also carry the savings into next season.

The collateral is a possible $115 million dead cap hit if none of them resign with the team when their extensions run out. That is why these extensions and void years in particular point to an obvious point the front office is making: invest in young talent. Bergeron is the oldest of the quartet at just 26 years old.

Matt Ryan, Ian Cunningham, and Johnston believe that the Falcons have a strong young core on the offensive side of the ball and want to keep these players around for years to come despite the risk that comes with it. 

Void years, contract extensions, and cap space are all very confusing and are handled by people much smarter than me, but hopefully this story gave some insight into the Falcons' extensions and cap space strategy. 

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