Falcons WR Julio Jones Still A Trade Option

While the Atlanta Falcons are still in the midst of a rebuild as they look ahead to the 2021 season, one player who is still potential trade bait is Julio Jones.

The future Hall of Fame wide out is still a hot topic of discussion, and it sounded early on like the Falcons were going to ship him off to a team in exchange for draft picks. Now that the draft is over, the team will have to use Jones to get picks for the future.

Matthew Chambers of the Falconholic reports that the team is going to have to get creative if they want to move him, as Atlanta doesn't have a lot of other weapons on the roster.

The Athletic’s Jeff Schultz wrote that the Falcons “would like” to trade Jones, and that Jones along with defensive tackle Grady Jarrett are two players that would draw the most assets.

It won't be cheap for a team to bring in Jones. His base salary sits at $15.3 million, quite a bit of money for a player on the downside of his career. Last season, he had his lowest catch production since 2013. In nine games in 2020, Jones had 51 catches for 771 yards with three touchdowns. The season before, he had 99 catches for 1,394 yards and six scores.

There are a few teams that really could benefit from grabbing a guy like Jones and plugging him into the starting lineup from day one.

Among those are the Dallas Cowboys, Minnesota Vikings, Washington Football Club, New York Jets, Denver Broncos and the Las Vegas Raiders.

It'll be interesting to see whether a team truly has enough to pull off a deal for Jones, and if so, what the return on the receiver will be.