Report: Falcons Reach A Two-Year Deal With TE Tony Gonzalez

Update:

D. Orlando Ledbetter reports that the Falcons re-signed TE Tony Gonzalez to a two-year, $14 million contract.

The deal is overall a cap-friendly contract for the Falcons. Gonzalez will have a $5 million cap figure for the upcoming season and his 2013 base salary will be $7 million.

• Pat Yasinskas of ESPN.com adds that Gonzalez will receive a $3.5 million in base salary next season, with another $3.5 million labeled as an “other amount treated as signing bonus.“

This breaks down to a $1.75 million prorated bonus paid out over the duration of the deal and the Falcons will take a $1.75 million cap hit in 2014. This is some creative accounting on the part of the Falcons front office.

We had him listed as the No. 6 best available player in our recently updated Top 50 Free Agents list.

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Update:

Jarrett Bell of USA Today reports that “a person with knowledge of the negotiations” has informed him that free agent TE Tony Gonzalez has given his agent “the green light” to discuss a new contract with the Falcons.

Jay Glazer confirms the report and adds that they are currently working on a new deal.

“After discussing it with my family and really, truly struggling with this decision I informed the Falcons I would like to return for one more shot,” Gonzalez told Glazer.

We have him listed as the No. 16 best available player in our Top 50 Free Agents list.

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Update:

Jim Corbett of USA Today Sports reports that Tony Gonzalez is expected to inform the Falcons that he will return for the 2013 season.

“There’s a pretty darn good chance that he comes back,” said the source. ”He’s been chasing that Super Bowl for a long time. If I was a betting man, I’d say he’d be on the side of trying to come back.”

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Michael Silver of Yahoo! Sports reports that “multiple team sources” have informed him that the Falcons are “cautiously optimistic” that TE Tony Gonzalez will return for another season.

Silver adds that source close to Gonzalez have mentioned that he’s “contemplating a return at the right price” and would want to miss “some or all of training camp” this summer.

“He will come back if they pay him $7 million and he doesn’t have to do training camp,” said a Falcons player.

Gonzalez, 36, would be an unrestricted free agent if he were to return for another season, but it’s very doubtful that he would be willing to shop himself around the league, especially when the Falcons have been so competitive in recent years.