Former Indianapolis Colts pass rushing great Dwight Freeney has decided to continue his professional career, as he elected to sign with the Atlanta Falcons on Tuesday:
Veteran pass-rusher Dwight Freeney will sign with the #Falcons, source said. He chose them over the #Bengals.
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) August 2, 2016
The 14-year veteran recently played for the Arizona Cardinals last season, recording 8 sacks and 3 forced fumbles in 11 games–after signing in Week 6.
Having patented his signature spin move in the process, Freeney has terrorized quarterbacks to the tune of 119.5 career sacks, which is 19th on the NFL’s all-time career sacks list.
It’s worth noting that Freeney is one spot ahead of his former Colts pass rushing teammate, Robert Mathis, who has 118 career sacks and is 20th on the league’s leading sack list.
107.5 of Freeney’s 119.5 career sacks came as a member of the Colts, so it’s safe to say that the Super Bowl XLI Champion, 3x First-Team All-Pro, 1x 2nd-Team All-Pro, and 7x Pro Bowler with Indianapolis is a shoe-in to be elected into the franchise’s Ring of Honor once he decides to hang up the cleats for good.
Given the Colts continuous pass rushing woes, Freeney’s return to the Colts was a popular narrative that was ignited by the fans and media earlier this offseason, but it appears that that it never had any serious legs as Indianapolis never showed any sort of significant interest.
Nevertheless, Freeney demonstrated last season that he can still be effective getting after the quarterback as a situational veteran pass rusher.
It makes sense that he would choose Atlanta over Cincinnati given that the Falcons will play in the Georgia Dome this season, meaning that Freeney’s speed should play up on the turf for half the year.
It shouldn’t be all that different from when Freeney became much more difficult to block, as he accelerated off the turf in the friendly confines of the RCA Dome and later Lucas Oil Stadium compared to opposing outdoor fields.
While it’s still weird seeing him play in another uniform, we wish him well in his future football endeavors and quarterback hunting–just not when he’s playing the Colts.