Imagine, if you will, the idea of Kyler Murray throwing the ball to DeAndre Hopkins AND Julio Jones in 2021? Such a notion would make an already stacked NFC West even more formidable. We know that the Falcons, Jones’ current team, is in a salary cap quandary right now — per OverTheCap.com, they’ve got $410,351 in total cap space, and Matt Ryan’s restructured contract is quite the financial albatross in 2021 and 2022. So, there’s been all kinds of recent talk about the possibility of the Falcons doing the unthinkable and trading their franchise receiver. Jones signed a three-year, $66 million contract extension in 2019, and his 2021 cap hit is $23,050 million, so it isn’t hard to connect the dots.
As for the Cardinals, they currently have $13,538,841 in cap space, so any trade for Jones would require some housekeeping (not to mention the draft capital they’d have to give up to do it), but DeAndre Hopkins, the Cardinals’ current franchise receiver, seems to have at least part of the plan in mind.
Somebody at the gym asked me would I restructure my contract for Julio ? pic.twitter.com/71mpbcoWhE
— Deandre Hopkins (@DeAndreHopkins) May 21, 2021
An interesting construct, to be sure. Hopkins signed a two-year, $54.5 million extension last September, and his 2021 cap hit is $12.5 million. The creative math is always easier to crunch when your star players are on board with the notion, so were the Cardinals to inquire as to Jones’ availability and cost, at least Hopkins is all for it.