Arthur Smith: We’d love to keep coaching Grady…
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The Falcons said farewell to the longest-tenured member of their offense last week when they traded quarterback Matt Ryan to the Colts, but they aren’t talking about parting ways from a longtime fixture on the defensive side of the ball.
Defensive tackle Grady Jarrett is heading into his eighth season and his future came up with head coach Arthur Smith on Tuesday because the coming year is the final one on Jarrett’s contract. Jarrett didn’t put up the biggest numbers of his career during Smith’s first season with the team, but Smith said that the team isn’t in any hurry to move on without him.
“I’m not going to predict that I 100 percent know,” Smith said, via the team’s website. “He knows where we stand. We love Grady. We also know that players may have their own opinions, and that’s welcome. It’s part of doing business. We’ll see how it plays out. I love Grady and we’d love to keep coaching him.”
Jarrett is set to have a cap number over $23.8 million this year and an extension would give the Falcons more space to work with this season. That would help offset some of the dead money left by the Ryan trade, but a new deal with Jarrett appears to be short of a sure thing in Atlanta.
