Devonta Freeman feels he's about to be 'blessed' with a new contract

Freeman is headed into the final year of his rookie contract and wants a new deal

Falcons running back Devonta Freeman is coming off two monster seasons. He had 2,135 rushing yards, 22 rushing touchdowns, 127 catches, 1,040 receiving yards and five receiving scores over the 2015 and '16 campaigns. Headed into the final year of his rookie deal, Freeman wants to be paid in a way that is commensurate with his production. 

"I want to be the best. I want to be elite paid," Freeman said in May. "Whatever that is, that's where I want to be -- straight up."

A few weeks later, Freeman apparently feels he's on the verge of getting what he wants.

"It's that feeling when you know something special is coming and you're about to be blessed," Freeman told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. "It's just an exciting moment in time for me right now."

The Falcons have maintained throughout the offseason that they would find a way to get Freeman a new deal by the time training camp rolled around.

"We will address this," Falcons general manager Thomas Dimitroff said in April. "When you look at our history, we address these situations going into training camp. I'm throwing that out there as a general timeline. I don't know when that exactly will be, but I'm confident that something can get wrapped up and he's going to be part of us for years to come."

Freeman is a huge part of one of the best offenses in football, so of course it makes sense that the Falcons want to keep him in the fold. He's still only 25, too, so he's not likely to see a drastic decline in his skill level for a few years. 

The highest-paid backs in the league that aren't still on their rookie scale contracts are making somewhere between $6 million and $8 million per year, so that's probably a range Freeman and his agents are targeting. But elite running backs don't have quite as long a shelf life as they used to, and teams have figured out that they can approximate the production they get from those players for a fraction of the cost, so negotiations tend to be difficult. (Notice how Le'Veon Bell, arguably the best back in football, doesn't have a long-term deal and is instead looking at playing out the 2017 season on the franchise tag.) Already, that $6 million-$8 million range is a steep drop from where running back salaries at the top of the market were just a few years ago. We'll apparently find out soon whether the Falcons feel a salary in that range is worth it to keep Freeman around for a while longer.