westbankdaze

True, but I will say that there was a reason the falcons cut him and while he isn't the oldest kid on the block he has more years on him than the guys I want him to be replaced with.

|Mitch|

Yeah he declined their 3 different offers and then signed with us for less... He was a UFA

Utah_Saint

The Falcons didn't cut him. In fact they offered him almost as much as the Saints did.

But they, in their typical classless way, decided to use insults as a negotiating tool. They made announcements to the rest of the league that Lofton wasn't that good. They claimed he was a liability in coverage, which they had never said before his contract year. And that he was only a 2 down back even though he played more downs than any other player on their defense going back to his rookie year. So in the end, even though the falcons offered him almost as much as the Saints, he decided he didn't want to play for a team that would publicly disrespect him after several years of being one of their best defensive players.

After Lofton left, the Falcons run defense dropped from 6th in 2011 to 21st in 2012. And overall the dirty bird defense dropped from 11th in 2011 to 24th in 2012. I'm not going to pretend the decline in defense is completely due to Lofton's departure but the pigeons didn't do themselves any favors by letting him walk.