(EDITOR’S NOTE: To listen to the D. Orlando Ledbetter audio, click on the following attachment: https://www.spreaker.com/user/fullpresscoverage/eyetest-ep55)
The countdown has begun on Julio Jones’ tenure with the Atlanta Falcons. He’s not happy. The club isn’t happy that he’s not happy. And Atlanta fans have joined the party, unhappy that Jones seems to have played his last game with their favorite team.
So how will they respond if … no, when … he’s traded away?
“Full meltdown,” said Hall-of-Fame voter and Atlanta Journal Constitution Falcons’ columnist D. Orlando Ledbetter.
Ledbetter was a guest on the latest “Eye Test for Two” podcast, and the subject was the issue du jour: No, not Aaron Rodgers or Tim Tebow. Wide receiver Julio Jones, the subject of widespread trade rumors since the April draft and who this week appeared on FOX’s “Undisputed” program and said in no uncertain terms that he was finished with the club.
“I’m out of here,” he told FOX’s, Shannon Sharpe.
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That, in turn, produced a tidal wave of stories speculating on Jones’ next destination … none of which included a Falcons’ training camp. Atlanta hasn’t budged and isn’t saying much, but its website on Thursday carried an ESPN report that the team has been offered a 2022 first-round draft pick for Jones.
Maybe. Maybe not. What we do know is that Jones has a fully guaranteed $15.3-million salary for this season … that he’s 32 years old … that the Falcons have salary-cap constraints … and that they have been offered a 2022 second-round pick in exchange for the wide receiver.
That, it should be noted, is what Mohamed Sanu commanded from New England in 2019.
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Whatever the compensation … guaranteed … it won’t be enough to satisfy Falcons’ fans, angry that the franchise’s most decorated receiver is on his way out.
“Since the ‘Undisputed’ show,” Ledbetter said, “it’s been a full-out meltdown. “(Fans say) ‘How can you all mess this up? What did you all do to make Julio Jones want to be traded? We’re trying to win, and we at least got the weapons here. We don’t know if they can block, and we don’t know about defense. But he’s been all in for the team for years. So what happened?’
“They’re trying to saying, ‘Well, it’s a salary-cap issue,’ but I had it explained to me that they can automatically convert his salary to a signing bonus – him and (defensive lineman) Grady Jarrett – and create space. So they have a lot of ways to do that and play with salary-cap numbers.
“It’s something other than the salary-cap numbers. Something happened between the hiring of (GM Terry) Fontenot and (head coach) Arthur Smith … from January to March … where he comes in and asks for a trade. Clearly, he doesn’t like their vision for the team and doesn’t think they can win anymore … and wants out.”
Ledbetter thinks he gets his wish. But what do the Falcons gain in return? Ah, that’s where the plot thickens.
“My mentor, (former Hall-of-Fame voter and Atlanta Constitution-Journal reporter) Len Pasquarelli, left with me some of the greatest stories of the Falcons,” Ledbetter said, starting to laugh. “One of his things – and he’ll e-mail me from time to time – is: ‘The Falcons are going to Falcon.’ And this has got a ‘Falcons are going to Falcon’ feel for me.
“They’re going to trade the best player in Falcons’ history arguably – certainly the best wide receiver – and get like a second-or-third-round pick. And it’s going to be some running back from Southern Mississippi or something, who’s going to play for two years and be a kickoff returner. The history of the Falcons is littered with moves like that.”