Defensive end Adrian Clayborn, who helped New England win Super Bowl LIII in Atlanta in February, agreed to a one-year deal to re-sign with the Falcons on Tuesday.
Clayborn, who played three seasons with the Falcons from 2015-17, was a financial casualty in Atlanta last offseason.
During his time with the Falcons, Clayborn played in 45 games and made 58 tackles (50 solo), 13 sacks, four fumble recoveries, two forced fumbles and two passes defensed.
In 2016, Clayborn set a Falcons single-game franchise record with six sacks against the Dallas Cowboys in Week 10.
The Falcons didn’t have enough money to pay his market value while trying to fit quarterback Matt Ryan’s five-year, $150 million deal into their salary structure.
“Money is always an issue especially when you’ve have to pay a quarterback all of that money,” Clayborn told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution during Super Bowl week. “You got guys like Grady (Jarrett) who’s going to be an awesome star and you have other guys like Julio (Jones). It’s hard. I understand it. There are no hard feelings. It happened.”
Clayborn signed a two-year, $12 million deal with the Patriots. He played in 14 regular-season games and made one start.
In 2016, Clayborn suffered a torn biceps in the divisional-round win over the Seahawks and missed the rest of the Falcons’ run to Super Bowl LI.
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