Typically when rumors of a star player being on the trade block start up, our first instinct here at For The Win is to write up a list of the teams that should trade for that player.
But with the Falcons shopping Julio Jones, that feels like a useless exercise (we did it anyway) as it would just be all 31 teams while Atlanta would make up the list of Teams That Definitely Should Not Trade Julio Jones.
That would be the case if Jones were on any team — don’t trade star players at premium positions for pennies on the dollar, in my opinion — but it is especially true after what Atlanta has done this offseason, a list that includes several “win now” moves.
Atlanta set the course for the offseason by re-working Matt Ryan’s deal, which had been set to expire after the 2022 season but would have allowed the team to get out of it after the 2021 season. That move helped the Falcons save about $21 million in cap space this offseason — money they desperately needed — but it also locked the team into at least two more years of Ryan.
Ryan is still a very good quarterback, so such a move makes some sense in a vacuum. But with the Falcons holding the No. 4 pick in last month’s draft, which would have allowed them to draft a QB of the future, it made a little less sense for a team that was presumably in need of a rebuild. Atlanta locking down Ryan for a few more years seemed to indicate that the front office did not feel the same way.
Then the draft came and the Falcons made Kyle Pitts the highest-drafted tight end in the history of the NFL. Pitts is an amazing prospect and I had no problem with that pick, but you don’t take a tight end to start a rebuild. Nor do you restructure your highly paid quarterback’s contract at the start of one.
If you were rebuilding, though, you might shop your all-world receiver around. And you might even settle for a couple of Day 2 picks to make such a deal happen. That’s exactly what the Falcons seem to be doing and it makes no sense.
The Falcons probably aren’t going to win a Super Bowl whether Jones is on the roster or not. But they definitely will be less entertaining to watch, and if you’re not going to win a Super Bowl or commit to a tank — which Atlanta also isn’t doing — you might as well be as fun as possible.
Sure, if I put my NFL analyst hat on, I’d probably consider trading Jones for draft capital the responsible move. But re-structuring Ryan’s deal wasn’t the responsible thing to do and neither was passing on Justin Fields for a tight end.
Typically, I can see the logic behind personnel decisions that may not be popular with fans. For instance, I defended the Raiders’ trade of Khalil Mack at the time because it made sense from a team-building perspective. Those first-round picks were significant assets, even if Jon Gruden ended up squandering them. Trading Julio for a couple of second-round picks isn’t really comparable. It’s probably a break-even scenario from a team-building perspective; so, in this case, I’m going to side with the sentimental fans that just want to watch some enjoyable football for a year.
My colleague Charles McDonald, a long-suffering Falcons fan himself, wrote about how fun an offense featuring Pitts, Jones and Calvin Ridley could be, and it was probably the most excitement he’s felt about Falcons football since the third quarter of Super Bowl LI. The Falcons can’t possibly take this away from their fans.
Hasn’t this franchise done enough to this fan base?
Ranking the possible NFL landing spots for Julio Jones, from the Titans to Kyle Shanahan’s team