© Dale Zanine-USA TODAY Sports
The face of the Atlanta Falcons franchise could be on the move. There have been rumblings, grumblings, and everything in between on the Julio Jones front over the last couple of years, but now those rumors have some teeth.
According to The Athletic’s Falcons reporter, Jeff Schultz, Atlanta wants to trade its star, Hall of Fame-bound wide receiver, who has been with the franchise since 2011 and is now 32 years old.
In the story, Schultz states explicitly: “The Falcons would like to trade Julio Jones.”
“That doesn’t mean it’s 100 percent that it’s going to happen. That doesn’t mean some members of the organization don’t believe the future Hall of Famer can still play, when healthy. But Jones’ availability on the trade market has been clear almost from the time new general manager Terry Fontenot and coach Arthur Smith landed in Atlanta and realized the extent of the team’s salary-cap problems. Anybody who wants to deny that likely is doing so out of mere fandom.”
Here is sort of CliffsNotes explanation from Schultz of why the Falcons want to move on from a man who has caught for at least 1198 yards in seven out of 10 seasons (the other three were his 958-yard rookie year, a five-game year in which he averaged 116 yards per game before injury, and nine games last season, when he caught for 771 yards). You should still read the story here:
- They are in salary cap trouble: Per Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer, Atlanta has just $357,000 in salary cap space, second-fewest in the league, and need between $7 and $8 million to sign their rookie draft class
- Only defensive tackle Grady Jarrett and Jones provide realistic avenues for cap relief, and the Falcons prefer not to restructure Jones’ deal. Trading him would save $15.3 million in space
- There are five teams, and potentially six, in the cap-crunched Tennessee Titans, who are expected to be interested in Jones: Ravens, 49ers, Patriots, Colts and Chargers
- Atlanta is rebuilding, and Jones’ remaining window of being an elite player probably does not align with their rebuilding window
So, could the 49ers actually pull off a trade for Jones? It’s not out of the question, but it gets tricky. And even though it’s for a guy who had injuries last year and played nine games, the 49ers don’t need to lean on him the same way Atlanta does, and he’s never not produced. His 12,896 yards are already the 20th-most in NFL history.
Kyle Shanahan was asked recently about Jones on Michael Irvin’s podcast, saying, “Everyone knows Julio is on a different level.”
One problem is that Jones, again, at age 32, has three years remaining on his deal. The Falcons will have to wait until June 1 to trade him to save money on the cap, but would still bare the remaining, roughly $16 million guaranteed the following season. He’d have cap hits of $11,513,000 in 2022 and 2023. For 2021, he’d cost the 49ers, or any acquiring team, $15.3 million.
While they currently have roughly $17 million in space, that’s before Trey Lance is signed, and takes up about $6 million of that space. They also have to pay Fred Warner at some point, so there would almost certainly have to be a restructured deal in place where the 49ers probably pay him less this season and guarantee him money in 2022 and/or 2023.
There is also the compensation component, which is tricky for a team that doesn’t have a first-round pick in each of the next two seasons. Still, it’s one of the greatest receivers in NFL history who Shanahan loves, so it’s absolutely within the realm of possibility if the compensation isn’t obscene.