The Falcons have signed 26-year old DE Ray Edwards to a 5-year, $30 million dollar deal.  Edwards played in 14 games for the Vikings last year and he had 37 tackles, 3 tackles for a loss, 8 sacks and he defensed 2 passes.  He has now played in 72 games in his first five years in the NFL and he has 182 tackles, 23 tackles for a loss, 29.5 sacks, 6 forced fumbles, 2 fumble recoveries and 11 passes defensed.  Edwards will give the Falcons a nice set of bookend DEs with John Abraham on the other side.  This was a great signing for the Falcons.

The Falcons have re-signed 29-year old OT Tyson Clabo to a 5-year, $25 million dollar contract. Clabo played in 16 games (all starts) for the Falcons last year.  He has now played in 69 games (all starts) in his first five years with the Falcons.  This was a good signing as it will keep QB Matt Ryan happy….and that’s important.

The Falcons have released 25-year old DE Jamaal Anderson.  Anderson played in all 16 games for the Falcons last year and he had 21 tackles, 3 tackles for a loss, 2 sacks, 1 forced fumble and he defensed 1 pass.  Anderson played in 60 games in his four years with the Falcons and he had 105 tackles, 7 tackles for a loss, 4.5 sacks, 2 forced fumbles and he defensed 9 passes.  Anderson never lived up to his draft status with the Falcons, so they decided to cut their losses.  They won’t miss him at all moving forward.

The Falcons have released 29-year old WR Michael Jenkins.  Jenkins played in 11 games (9 starts) for the Falcons last season and he caught 41 passes for 505 yards (12.3 avg) with 2 TD grabs.  He played in 103 games (64 starts) in his first 7 years with the Falcons and he caught 276 passes for 3,512 yards (12.7 avg) with 20 TD grabs.  The addition of rookie Julio Jones on draft night essentially ended Jenkins’ career with the Falcons.  He will find a new team soon but the Falcons shouldn’t miss him too much.

RB Gerald Riggs gave Falcons’ fans a good reason to tune into the games each weekend, despite the team not being the best around.  Riggs best season came back in 1985.  Riggs played in 16 games (all starts) for the Falcons in 1985 and he carried the ball 397 times for 1,719 yards (4.3 ypc) with 10 TD runs.  He also caught 33 passes for 267 yards (8.1 avg) for the Falcons in 1985.  Riggs played 7 seasons for the Falcons appearing in 91 games in which he carried the ball 1,587 times for 6,631 yards (4.2 ypc) with 48 TD runs.  He also caught 186 passes for 1,384 yards (7.4 avg) for the Falcons.  Riggs made it to 3 Pro Bowls with the Falcons and he rushed for at least 1,327 yards in a season three times with Atlanta.  Riggs is the Falcons’ all-time leading rusher (6,631 yards) and he’s also the franchise leader in rushing TDs (48).