Julio Jones voiced his displeasure with the Atlanta Falcons. He wanted to win and the Falcons weren’t doing that anymore. To be fair, Jones always seems to be sidelined with an injury but when he is out on the field, he’s as dangerous as any wide out.
The Atlanta Falcons agreed to trade Julio Jones to the Tennessee Titans on Sunday in exchange for the Titans’ 2022 second-round draft pick and 2023 fourth-round selection. The Falcons will send a 2023 sixth-round pick to the Titans in the deal.
Tennessee Titans General Manager joined the NFL Network on Good Morning Football on Wednesday morning and talked about how Jones would be the perfect match for the Titans offense.
“My charge is to get as many good players on the team as possible and I’m excited about the guys we had back on the roster, the guys that we added in the offseason, but when you’re able to acquire a player like Julio and can add him into the mix of our football team, what we try to do offensively, those don’t come around very often,” he said. “We thought it was a move that we needed to make for us. I know our fans are super stoked to have him here.”
Last year, the Titans fell short of the Super Bowl losing to the Ravens, 20-13 in the NFL Wild Card Round. The offense lacked a bit against the Ravens, only scoring 13 points. Tennessee already has major scoring threats on the team including A.J. Brown, who will be keeping his number 11 for next season.
Brown caught 70 receptions of 106 targets for 1,075 yards and 11 touchdowns. He gained 422 yards after the catch and averaged over 15 yards per reception last season.
Titans quarterback, Ryan Tannehill has surged as the Titans play-caller. He threw for nearly 4,000 yards on offense while the Titans star running back, Derrick Henry, achieved over 2,000 yards on the ground with 2,027 yards.
The Titans felt like they were missing one more piece offensively. Corey Davis was the second receiver on the team and while he gained 984 yards on the season off 65 targets, he wasn’t nearly as explosive as Brown.
After Davis, the Titans lacked wide receiver depth with Adam Humphries missing half the season due to injury and Kalif Raymond only averaging 20.8 yards per game last year. Because of the lack of depth, tight ends Jonnu Smith and even Anthony Firkser took on extended roles and became pass-catching tight-ends for Tannehill. Smith scored eight touchdowns and was a consistent target for Tannehill.
Although Smith and Davis are no longer with the Titans, the team will still have Firsker and also added former Rams receiver, Josh Reynolds. But there was no denying that the Titans needed another big receiver. They needed a guy that could be a legitimate threat and catch passes in traffic. They needed a guy who can break tackles in the open and make head scratching catches for touchdowns.
If Jones can finally stay healthy, this offense looks the best it’s looked in years. The Titans could produce two wide receivers with over 1,000 yards, a running back with over 2,000 yards and a quarterback that could throw for 4,000 yards in the air.
Jones already has seven seasons with over 1,000 yards and although he only played nine games last season, he still averaged 15.1 yards per catch which was better than his 2018 and 2019 averages when he was healthy. With Jones, Brown, Henry, Reynolds, Firkser and even Geoff Swaim, defenses are going to have trouble defending. Defensive coordinators will have a hard time deciding what to do each possession because the Titans can run the football with Henry or can drop back and throw bombs to Jones or Brown.
And don’t forget, Tannehill has some ability to run the football as well.
If the Titans wanted to contend, this was a deal they had to make. They got Jones without giving up a first-round pick and it was perfect execution. Now Jones and the rest of the Titans need to perform on the field and get to the Super Bowl.