FLOWERY BRANCH -- Almost six weeks after being found to have violated the NFL’s Anti-Tampering Policy, Falcons assistant general manager Kyle Smith said the team is ready to “adjust” and “move forward.”
On June 13, the NFL, after a three-month investigation, determined that the Falcons violating rules while signing quarterback Kirk Cousins, tight end Charlie Woerner and wide receiver Darnell Mooney during the two-day negotiating period before the start of the 2024 league year.
The Falcons must forfeit their fifth-round pick in the 2025 draft, were fined $250,000 and general manager Terry Fontenot was fined $50,000.
“We opened our doors to the deal in the process,” Smith said when asked about the case by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “Like anything, whether it’s involving us or another team, you always look at all of those deals. You look at your process from within. Things you have to do to adjust and move forward. So, we’ll move forward.”
It was the team’s second violation within a six-month period that the Falcons were cited for by the league office.
In December, the NFL fined the Falcons $75,000 and then-coach Arthur Smith $25,000 for violating the NFL injury-reporting policy before the club’s Week 7 game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
In its announcement of the tampering penalties, the NFL said that regarding the improper contact the “club acknowledges took place with regard to these three players.”
The Falcons may have benefitted from cooperating with the league.
In a similar case that involved just one player, the Chiefs were stripped of their third-round pick in 2016, their sixth-round pick in 2017 and fined $250,000. Chiefs coach Andy Reid was fined $50,000 and then-general manager John Dorsey was fined $25,000.
“Well, it’s like everything, I won’t go too far into the weeds as to what happened in the investigation,” Smith said. “Whenever that ruling comes, it could be for another team. You always look at the process of those things. You adjust and adapt in terms of what you’re going to do moving forward.”
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