"I will not take a pay cut or do a hometown discount to play for the Falcons." Roddy White

I was just arguing a few days ago that it might be time to let Roddy go. I got a bunch of silent downvotes without many arguments to the contrary. I believe that it is time to re-evaluate his contract to make sure we are maximizing value with his roster spot.

I don't know the context of the quote and I really don't care that he said it, I'm sure that this is more of an out of context tweet than Roddy really trying to stir up drama. The guy has been a great player for this franchise, I appreciate his attitude on the field and I think that he has matured really well over his career. I believe that he had a major role in helping both Matt and Julio to mature as football players and as individuals and we should all be grateful for his influence in that regard. I respect Roddy enough to take the childish shit for what it is and realize that this is a guy who probably has a deep respect for the Falcons ownership and organization. I think that he just likes to stir up controversy but it has never gotten to the point where I would want him off the team over something stupid that he has said. I truly believe that his heart is in the right place.

All that being said, it might be time to get out from under his contract. Roddy has been an incredible player for us but both his production and skills are declining at this point, and I don't see a reason why they would increase dramatically over the course of his contract.

I know there is an argument here to be made that Roddy hasn't gotten enough opportunities under Shanahan, but I firmly disagree that this is the only reason for his decline in production. As evidenced even just by yesterday's game Roddy is losing both quickness and speed, he is having a harder time getting separation. He also has had a problem with dropped passes all year which is a total aberration. Even if you completely disagree with the direction that Shanahan is taking this offense, I don't think you can discount the fact that he is better than any of us at watching tape. I think that he can clearly see that Roddy's physical skill set is deteriorating and therefore he has decided not to give him as many opportunities. And Roddy hasn't helped by not consistently taking advantage of the fewer opportunities that he is given.

Whatever your rationale is, it's hard to make the argument that we should keep a player just because he means a lot to our franchise. u/asha1985 makes the important point that teams cannot continue to improve by holding on to aging players whose productivity is decreasing. This is just one of the many reasons that Belichick is so successful, he values the history of the game and of the individual players who have helped him but he also refuses to keep aging players around if he thinks that their salaries exceed their production or potential.

tl;DR Roddy White is one of the great Falcons of all time. But his physical attributes and production are both deteriorating, most likely due to age but probably in conjunction with scheme changes as well. I would argue that it is definitely worth evaluating his contract in detail to make sure that we are not paying him for more than he can produce over the course of the next 2 years. Championship teams are built by maximizing value and minimizing cost. I don't think it is unreasonable to think that we can find another player with higher upside at a much lower cost who can contribute at least as much as Roddy did this year.

/r/falcons Thread Link - twitter.com