{"id":520572,"date":"2026-03-05T15:37:18","date_gmt":"2026-03-05T15:37:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/520572\/"},"modified":"2026-03-05T15:37:18","modified_gmt":"2026-03-05T15:37:18","slug":"falcons-to-release-starting-wr-ahead-of-nfl-free-agency","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/520572\/","title":{"rendered":"Falcons to release starting WR ahead of NFL free agency"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Falcons<\/a> are releasing wide receiver Darnell Mooney after two seasons in Atlanta, according to a report NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport. Mooney had a quiet year in 2025, recording 32 catches for 443 receiving yards and one touchdown.<\/p>\n

This was a drastic drop in production for the veteran receiver, who finished the 2024 season with 64 receptions for 992 receiving yards and five touchdowns.<\/p>\n

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“The Falcons are planning to release WR Darnell Mooney, sources say, with Mooney set to count $18.4M against the salary cap,” wrote Rapoport<\/a>. “Mooney, still just 28, has averaged better than 13 yards per catch in each of the last three seasons.”<\/p>\n

However, it’s important to note that Mooney suffered a shoulder injury during training camp that was more severe than the team initially let on. He never appeared to be 100 percent last season, which undoubtedly affected his production.<\/p>\n

According to Over The Cap’s projections, releasing Mooney will free up around $7.4 million while incurring a dead cap total of $11 million.<\/p>\n

Since entering the league as a fifth-round pick by the Chicago Bears<\/a> in 2020, Mooney has appeared in 91 career games, recording 309 catches for 4,028 receiving yards and 17 touchdowns.<\/p>\n

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The Falcons are also expected to release wide receiver KhaDarel Hodge. The former Pro Bowl special teams ace spent the last four seasons in Atlanta. Releasing Hodge frees up $2.64 million while incurring a dead money total of $625,000.<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on Falcons Wire: Atlanta Falcons: Darnell Mooney cut ahead of NFL free agency<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Falcons are releasing wide receiver Darnell Mooney after two seasons in Atlanta, according to a report NFL…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":520573,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[559],"tags":[4131,64,63,1248,30245,23169,2360,109527,593,2361,72838,85,50435],"class_list":["post-520572","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-atlanta","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-chicago-bears","tag-darnell-mooney","tag-falcons","tag-ian-rapoport","tag-khadarel-hodge","tag-nfl","tag-nfl-network","tag-receiving-yards","tag-sports","tag-wide-receiver"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/520572","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=520572"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/520572\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/520573"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=520572"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=520572"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=520572"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}