Atlanta Falcons: Julio Jones deal a clear win-win

Atlanta Falcons wide receiver Julio Jones is one of the most important skill position players in the NFL for his team, because the playoff hopes of this organization ride on the dynamic partnership that he and Matt Ryan bring to the table.

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With Roddy White aging and dealing with nagging injuries and both Leonard Hankerson and Justin Hardy technically unknowns, the strength of this entire team lies in their QB-WR combo. Kyle Shanahan figures to run the offense through Jones’s top-five WR talent, especially since neither Tevin Coleman nor Devonta Freeman have inspired a huge amount of confidence this Auugst.

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We all know it was only a matter of time before the Falcons announced a contract extension for Jones, and yesterday the NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport reported that a five-year, $71.25 million extension with $47 million in guarantees had been agreed to.

Jones’s entire $10.176 million base salary for 2015 would have been completely guaranteed anyway, so while you could read into the $47 million in guarantees and say that he decisively beat Dez Bryant and Demaryius Thomas in both categories ($45 million and $43.5 million guaranteed for those two, respectively, over five years), the Falcons had no choice but to give him more guaranteed money.

The nature of contracts dictates that when one elite player at a position gets a new deal, another elite player at the position will want more. Because Jones’s average of 106.2 receiving yards per game last season was second in the NFL behind only Odell Beckham Jr. (yes, he averaged more yards per game than Pittsburgh Steelers superstar Antonio Brown), I’d argue that he was better/more important than Bryant and Thomas.

Even if you think that Bryant and/or Thomas is better, Jones, his agent, and any other person in that situation would argue that they are better and more deserving of a better deal.

So the Falcons were always going to have to give Jones more money per year and more guaranteed money overall than what the Cowboys and Broncos spent on their No. 1 receivers. The stakes are higher for the Falcons, too, because the Cowboys and Broncos have more talent on their roster than the Atlanta Falcons do. With all due respect to Ryan, who is the NFL’s most underrated QB, he isn’t quite as good as Peyton Manning or Tony Romo. And, of course, the Falcons defense and other players on offense aren’t quite of the same caliber as two teams that won 12 games last season.

There’s no doubt that the Falcons had to get this five-year deal done, and there was never any doubt that Jones would become the new second highest-paid wide receiver in the league behind Calvin Johnson. Although Jones’s injury history makes the guaranteed money seem to rich, particularly when you look at how durable Thomas and Bryant have been over the past three seasons, the figures in this deal include the $10.176 million in guaranteed cash that Jones would have made anyway this year.

With 116.0 and 106.2 yards per game in each of the past two seasons and averages of 14.1 and 15.3 yards per reception, there’s no doubt that Julio Jones is one of the most dynamic players in the NFL. Perhaps only Megatron and ODB are more freakish than Jones, who would have surpassed 1,600 yards of receiving in 2014 had he played in 16 games instead of 15. His 104 receptions represent a consistent torching of secondaries, and there are few receivers who can dominate at the catch point and with the ball in their hands as well as the 6’3″, 220-pound former Alabama star can.

Given his importance to the offense and the fact that his role looks set to increase even more with Shanahan at the helm, Jones was a must-pay for the Falcons. They pretty much had to pay him whatever he wanted, and, well, he just wanted to be the second highest-paid receiver in the NFL both in terms of annual and guaranteed money.

It seems like a steep price on the surface, but literally the only issue with Jones is injury risk. He’s proven that he’s easily one of the five best receivers in the NFL, and teams can’t even have success trying to double-cover him; it’s why he’s the NFL’s most explosive players.

The Falcons may have even paid him less than market value given his upside, because it’s quite ridiculous to think that this is a guy with 108.7 receiving yards per game in the past two seasons combined. He’ll continue to dominate week-in and week-out, and it’s great to see that he and Ryan will be balling out together for the next five seasons.

Next: Which Falcons Are Among NFL's Most Important Players?

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