The Atlanta Falcons announced Friday that they have signed defensive end Cameron Thomas to a three-year contract extension, locking in one of the defense's most productive players this season. The deal is worth up to $33 million, sources told ESPN's Adam Schefter and NFL Network's Ian Rapoport.
Atlanta also announced Friday that cornerback C.J. Henderson has agreed to a two-year extension. The deal guarantees Henderson $11 million and could top out at $20 million, sources told Rapoport.
Thomas, 26, joined the Falcons this past offseason on a one-year, $3.1 million contract and has surpassed every expectation since arriving. He has two sacks and leads all Atlanta edge rushers with a minimum of 150 pass-rush snaps in quarterback pressure rate at 13.5 percent and in QB hits with 12, the latter a career high. He has played 63.3 percent of the team's defensive snaps, more than any other Falcons defensive lineman.
The Arizona Cardinals selected Thomas in the third round of the 2022 draft, and Atlanta is his fourth NFL team. Before this season, he spent two years with the Cleveland Browns playing under Kevin Stefanski, now the Falcons' head coach.
Defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich said Thomas was the first name Stefanski mentioned when the team looked to sign an edge rusher in the offseason. 'You talk about a guy that just, he demonstrates what we love about this game every single day: the toughness, the strain, the effort, the relentless effort, and then the high-level execution, the consistency,' Ulbrich said Thursday. 'If there's a guy that we can really lean on on our defense, he's one of those human beings. I've been just so overwhelmed with what he's brought to us and it's been awesome.'
The extension was negotiated by Equity Sports CEO Chris Cabott, Falcons general manager Ian Cunningham and Falcons senior vice president Bryce Johnston, Schefter and Rapoport reported. It was finished Thursday night.
Henderson, 28, has started the past six games at boundary corner for Atlanta. He was the No. 9 overall pick by the Jacksonville Jaguars in 2020 and bounced around the league before landing with the Falcons on the practice squad last season.
'It's been a fun journey with CJ because when he got here, obviously, he had a very well-known past in this league,' Ulbrich said. 'To help him start to reinvent himself here, it brings me a ton of joy because he's just such an amazing young man.'
