Over the offseason, the Falcons spent $80.3 million to rebuild the offensive line.
A total of $51.7 million of those contracts are guaranteed.
Here are the individual breakdowns:
• James Carpenter, G: $21 million, $9.2 million guaranteed
• Jamon Brown, G: $18.7 million, 12.7 million guaranteed
• Chris Lindstrom, G: $14.7 million fully guaranteed
• Ty Sambrailo, T/G: $14.2 million, $6 million guaranteed. He has an escalator that could push his deal up to $18 million
• John Wetzel, T: $720,000 with no guaranteed money
• Adam Gettis, G: $805,000 with no guaranteed money
It’s practically certain that someone making a lot of money will be sitting on the bench.
“We are not worried about it,” Falcons general manager Thomas Dimitroff said. “We are not worried about offending anyone. We are not worried about having invested money in certain areas.
“We are 100 percent going to do what we thought was best for the team. We had to make sure that we had not only the starters in mind, but make sure that we had depth. If we have situations that we need the depth to step up, we’re in a considerably better position than we were last year.”
The Falcons offensive line gave up 108 quarterback hits and 42 sacks after guards Andy Levitre and Brandon Fusco were lost to injury and right tackle Ryan Schraeder's play started to slip.
The Falcons were determined to get better protection for quarterback Matt Ryan after making a $150 million investment in their signal-caller.
---
Subscribe to "The Bow Tie Chronicles" podcast with the AJC's D. Orlando Ledbetter on iTunes or on the new AJC sports podcasts page.
About the Author
