{"id":38892,"date":"2018-03-05T19:54:25","date_gmt":"2018-03-06T00:54:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lwosonnfl.ms.lastwordonsports.com\/?p=38892"},"modified":"2021-03-08T17:13:51","modified_gmt":"2021-03-08T22:13:51","slug":"matt-bryant-signs-extension-atlanta-falcons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2018\/03\/05\/matt-bryant-signs-extension-atlanta-falcons\/","title":{"rendered":"Matt Bryant Signs Three-Year Extension with Atlanta Falcons"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span class=\"TextRun SCXW155086731\" lang=\"EN-US\" xml:lang=\"EN-US\"><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW155086731\">According to the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonprofootball.com\/nfl-teams\/falcons\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Atlanta Falcons<\/a> official website, the team <a href=\"http:\/\/www.atlantafalcons.com\/news\/transactions\/article-1\/Falcons-agree-to-terms-on-a-three-year-extension-with-veteran-kicker-Matt-Bryant-\/71518877-71e1-4590-a610-bf343cfa093a\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">has inked veteran kicker <\/a><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/B\/bryanmat01.htm?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Matt Bryant<\/a><\/strong> to a three-year extension. The contract is worth $8.5 million, with a million dollars guaranteed that looks to keep Bryant in Atlanta through 2020<\/span><\/span><span class=\"TextRun SCXW155086731\" lang=\"EN-US\" xml:lang=\"EN-US\"><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW155086731\">.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">BREAKING: Matt Bryant will return. <\/p>\n<p>Full Story &#8211; <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/kgS50hfGlQ\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">https:\/\/t.co\/kgS50hfGlQ<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/EaWEE3kQjP\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/EaWEE3kQjP<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Atlanta Falcons (@AtlantaFalcons) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/AtlantaFalcons\/status\/970787173854302208?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">March 5, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h1><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/B\/bryanmat01.htm?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Matt Bryant<\/a> Signs Three-Year Extension with Atlanta Falcons<\/h1>\n<p>Despite being at the age of 42, Bryant was still a kicker who would have gained interest had he become a free agent. He is still one of the more reliable kickers in the league even with that age, much like <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/V\/vinatada01.htm\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>Adam\u00a0Vinatieri<\/strong><\/a>. His kicking abilities have not slowed down in the last couple of\u00a0seasons. Compared to his younger days he has\u00a0arguably\u00a0gotten better as he has gotten older.<\/p>\n<p>Bryant&#8217;s 2017 season was his ninth with the Falcons. During the season, he went 34-for-39 on field goals with 57 yards as his longest of the year. He also was perfect on extra points this season, one of only seven kickers to do so. He did not have any last-second game-winners this year, but he did have a go-ahead 52-yard field goal against the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonprofootball.com\/nfl-teams\/saints\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">New Orleans Saints<\/a> with under four minutes to go.<\/p>\n<p>Bryant attended college at Baylor from 1997 to 1998. He went undrafted in 1999, and after a short stint with the Arena Football League was finally signed by the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonprofootball.com\/nfl-teams\/giants\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">New York Giants<\/a> in 2002. After two seasons there, he had some very brief stints as well with the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonprofootball.com\/nfl-teams\/colts\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Indianapolis Colts<\/a> and<a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonprofootball.com\/nfl-teams\/dolphins\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> Miami Dolphins<\/a> before landing with the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonprofootball.com\/nfl-teams\/buccaneers\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Tampa Bay Buccaneers<\/a> from 2005 to 2008. While with the Buccaneers, he kicked his career long of 62 yards in 2006.<\/p>\n<p>The Buccaneers cut Bryant just before the 2009 season began. He was not signed until December of that year by the Falcons whom he\u00a0has\u00a0stayed with since. During that time, he has had four seasons with field goal percentages of 90% or higher. He had a career high 93.1% in 2011. Bryant also has missed only one extra point during his tenure there as well. He attended the Pro Bowl in 2016. He also holds the franchise record for most points scored.<\/p>\n<p>Main Photo:<a id=\"8QwgFpitRM9JYJ1BiqX3Sg\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/902008126\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'8QwgFpitRM9JYJ1BiqX3Sg',sig:'7xXVY1LLZ6r5SFAfhVVWp_Vga2_7BRGHZOPAg2L5MlI=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'902008126',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Matt Bryant Signs: Instead of hitting the free agent market, the veteran kicker at age 42 will remain with the Atlanta Falcons through 2020. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2355,"featured_media":38910,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[36,27],"tags":[834,7727,988],"class_list":["post-38892","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nfl-news","category-falcons","tag-adam-vinatieri","tag-atlanta-falcons-news","tag-matt-bryant"],"modified_by":"David Latham, Managing Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38892","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2355"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38892"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38892\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38910"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38892"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38892"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38892"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}