The Atlanta Falcons release linebacker Dante Fowler Jr.

Cutting the linebacker will leave Atlanta with $4,666,668 in dead money for 2022, but free the club from most of his inflated contract.

The Atlanta Falcons they cut to Dante Fowler Jr.. on Wednesday, moving on without the linebacker with a year remaining on his contract.

Fowler he had to take a pay cut heading into the 2021 season as part of a modified deal, and then failed to earn any of the incentives that were placed in the deal, playing in 14 games — starting six — and finishing with 4.5 sacks .

The 27-year-old defender had incentives in his contract — $1 million bonuses starting with five sacks. As part of the contractual modification for 2021, his impact against the salary cap would have exceeded 29 million dollars, something that would have been unfeasible for Atlanta.

Now, instead, the team is releasing him after two seasons with the club in which he played a combined 28 games, starting 19 of them and recording 59 tackles and 7.5 sacks. By the end of the season, the playing time of Fowler It had been inconsistent. In some games, he was involved in more than 50 percent of the snaps; in others, less than 40 percent.

Fowler led the falcons with 4.5 sacks, but Atlanta was last in NFL in sacks, with 18.

In 2021, he had more than one quarterback hit in a game only once, Week 2 against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, when he got sack and forced fumble. After a knee injury sidelined him for three games in late October and early November, Fowler only started one more game — on a visit to the Carolina Panthers— Recording a sack and a season mark with three solo tackles.

It was the last catch he would have with the falcons.

“Dante, like a lot of our players, gives us everything they’ve got,” Los Angeles head coach said. Falcons, Arthur Smith, in January. “He’s a tough football player and it’s been fun getting to know him, working with him.”

Cut to Fowler will leave the falcons with $4,666,668 in dead money for 2022, but will release the club from most of the bloated deal.

The No. 3 overall pick in the 2015 draft, out of Floridafor the jacksonville jaguars, Fowler He has played in 91 games for the Jags, Los Angeles Rams and falcons, starting 40 of them. His most productive season came with the Rams in 2019, when he had 11.5 sacks, the only time in his career that he posted double-digit sacks.

set free to Fowler means that the falcons they only have Ade Ogundeji, James Vaughers and John Cominsky on the 2022 roster in terms of contributors at outside linebacker last season.