30 NFL players you won’t believe never won an award

14. Julio Jones
Pro Football Hall of Fame: whenever he retires

The Atlanta Falcons made one of the boldest moves in NFL Draft history that didn’t involve a quarterback. They called the Cleveland Browns and offered them the 27th, 59th, and 124th picks in the 2011 draft, and their first and fourth-round picks in the 2012 draft to take Jones with the sixth-overall pick. Looking back, it seems like the Falcons fleeced the Browns even though they did not consider the player they received. Now that we see they got a Hall of Fame wide receiver to pair with their franchise’s best quarterback, it’s a robbery.

Jones was on the radar for Offensive Rookie of the Year, but it didn’t work out, as he didn’t hit 1,000 yards in that first season. Still, he had flashes of the brilliance that would headline his career. 

Jones led the league in receiving twice, and he was the catalyst in Matt Ryan’s lone MVP campaign in 2015. Ryan targeted Jones more than 200 times that season, and Jones came down with 136 balls for 1,871 yards and eight touchdowns. The opposing team knew for a fact that Ryan was going to Jones, and it didn’t matter. They were going to lose the battle way more often than not. 

Most people remember the 2015 season since it ended with a Super Bowl berth and Jones literally never stopped producing, but he was stupendous for the next four years. He had between 1,391 and a league-leading 1,677 yards from 2016 to 2019. He did lose a step after he turned 30 and faced that strange 2020 football season. His peak is as good as any wide receiver we’ve seen in this era, and having no hardware to show for it is sad.