NFL rumors: Any Julio Jones trade may come with a catch

Any team who trades for Atlanta Falcons wide receiver Julio Jones must be ready to pay up.

With Atlanta Falcons wide receiver Julio Jones expected to be traded in the coming days or weeks, whichever NFL team is able to strike a deal with the Dirty Birds must realize what it soon to follow.

While Jones is under contract for $15.3 million in 2021, he will only be making an average annual salary of $12.775 million over the life of his three-year extension he did sign with Atlanta. This means his prospective new employer must fully embrace the fact he will probably want a new deal worth even more money within a year, or possibly even upon arrival. He will be expensive.

Could this be a contributing factor to why the Falcons have not been able to trade him just yet?

Atlanta Falcons: Julio Jones comes with a catch for the team who trades for him

Frankly, the reason the Falcons have taken this long to trade Jones is two-fold: One, the new front office led by first-year general manager Terry Fontenot wants to make sure he is getting a great return in exchange for the franchise’s greatest player ever. While Atlanta may covet a first-round pick, the Falcons may not be able to command that for the 32-year-old Pro Bowl wide receiver.

And two, this is all about waiting until June 1. If the Falcons wait to make a deal after June 1, they can split the soul-crushing amount of dead cap they would have to eat over two seasons, instead of taking it all on at once. Because only a dozen or so teams can afford to take on Jones’ contract presently, his trade market is not as robust as Fontenot and the Falcons would probably hope for.

Ultimately, any team who does trade for Jones should expect to pay him handsomely beyond what he is making now. If Jones balls out in his first year with a new team, his market value will go up back to what it was during the Falcons’ disaster of a 2020 NFL season. Simply put, a team trading for Jones should expect to pay him more than what is contract currently is. He will get a new one.

Whatever team trades for Jones has to understand they are making a big multi-year investment.