For the past couple of years, the Atlanta Falcons have had one of the better offensive lines in football. In 2025, they surrendered the fourth-fewest sacks in the league, and allowed the run offense to rush for the seventh-highest yards in football at nearly 126 yards per game.
Even after losing stalwart right tackle Kaleb McGary and replacing him with the underperforming ex-Kansas City Chiefs right tackle, Jawaan Taylor, consensus pre-season rankings have the unit being borderline top-10 heading into this coming season.
And on August 1st, the team have decided to lock down one of perhaps their more under-appreciated members of the offensive line in Matthew Bergeron, giving him a four-year extension worth $96 million, worth an average of $24 million per year, per NFL Network's Mike Garafolo.
"The Falcons and G Matthew Bergeron have agreed to terms on a four-year, $96 million contract extension, sources tell me and @JFowlerESPN. The 38th overall pick in 2023 gets $60 million guaranteed in a deal done by @Chase_Callahan of @excelfootball." Garafolo posted on X.
This deal ranks Bergeron alongside Dallas Cowboys guard Tyler Smith as being the highest paid interior offensive lineman in football. Something that, considering Smith's pedigree of being a three-time Pro Bowler and one-time second team All-Pro, the award-less Bergeron will no doubt be content with.
In fact - and indeed perhaps controversially - this will make the former second round draft pick more highly compensated than teammate Chris Lindstrom, who was recently ranked the sixth best IOL in the NFL by a sample of executives, coaches and scouts collected by ESPN's Jeremy Fowler.
Perhaps a pay boost in the not-so-distant future is on the cards for Lindstrom.