Once it became clear that Steven Jackson would void the final year of his contract with the St. Louis Rams, Around The League's Gregg Rosenthal listed the Atlanta Falcons as a likely suitor for the veteran tailback.
That match is picking up steam. Jackson's priority isn't to settle for a potential playoff team; he wants to finish his career with a legitimate Super Bowl contender. The New England Patriots are the only team with a better regular-season record than the Falcons over the past five seasons, while the St. Louis Rams are dead-last over that span.
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch identified the Falcons as one of Jackson's most likely suitors, which meshes with the feeling in the air at the NFL Scouting Combine the past couple of days.
"(Steven Jackson's) likely landing spot seems to be Atlanta," Jason Cole of Yahoo! Sports tweeted, "based on what was happening at the NFL Scouting Combine."
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With signs continuing to point toward Tony Gonzalez returning for at least one more season, Jackson could be the missing ingredient to the Falcons offense as a clear upgrade on the soon-to-be-released running back Michael Turner.
Had Jackson been around to salt away a commanding third-quarter lead against the San Francisco 49ers, there's a good chance it would have been the Falcons facing the Baltimore Ravens in Super Bowl XLVII.
Follow Chris Wesseling on Twitter @ChrisWesseling.
