Julio’s Value
The Falcons “would like to trade” Julio Jones to alleviate salary cap issues, The Athletic’s Jeff Schultz reported on Thursday.
Jones is in the first year of a three-year contract signed in September 2019. The deal, worth $66 million (all guaranteed) runs from 2021 to ’23 and includes cap hits of $23,050,000, $19,263,000, and $19,263,000 in each of the next three seasons, respectively. And although the Falcons are currently under the cap by $500,000, they need approximately $8 million to sign the 2021 draft picks.
If Jones is moved, what’s the price?
“A high-ranking team executive said he’d give the Falcons second- and fourth-round choices for Jones,” Packer Central’s Bill Huber wrote on Friday. “The assumption, he said, is the Falcons would want a first-round pick.
“Giving up a one is too much,” the executive told Huber. “Honestly, a two is too much but it’s the price, I’m sure.”
Jones had 51 receptions for 771 yards and three touchdowns in nine games last season, the lowest numbers of his career since his injury-shortened 2013 season. He did, however, average 15.1 yards per reception, his highest since 2017, and posted a career-high catch rate of 75%.
At 32 years old, Jones ranks 20th on the all-time receiving yardage list and 29th in all-time receptions.
Eugene Chung
Eugene Chung is a former first-round pick of the Patriots—No. 13 pick in the 1992 NFL draft—and spent parts of nine seasons on active rosters and practice squads with five different teams. He’s now an offensive line coach who spent most of the last decade with the Eagles and was seeking employment with a new team this offseason.
“When former Patriots offensive tackle Eugene Chung was pursuing an NFL coaching job this offseason, a comment made by one of his interviewers struck a chord,” wrote The Boston Globe’s Nicole Yang last week. “As Chung sold himself, running through his accolades, experience, and everything he could bring to the organization’s staff, the interviewer interjected.”
“‘It was said to me, ‘Well, you’re really not a minority,’ Chung recalled.
“Chung, who is Korean, froze.”
“I was like, ‘Wait a minute. The last time I checked, when I looked in the mirror and brushed my teeth, I was a minority,’” he said. “So I was like, ‘What do you mean I’m not a minority?’”
Chung described feeling emotionally paralyzed in the moment and realizing what the shocking narrative was. You can read Yang’s entire article here.
More NFL Notes
What you haven’t heard but need to understand from the Deshaun Watson lawsuits … Projecting the starters for all 32 teams after the NFL draft … Ranking the 10 best defenses for 2021 … Predicting each team’s breakout player … Best remaining free agents this offseason … Andrew Brandt gives one solution to keep Aaron Rodgers on the Packers this season.
Taelo Thein
Last Dance Remains Undefeated
New Trailers
Follow me on Twitter, check out my podcast, and bookmark this page to see previous editions of Hot Clicks and find the newest edition every day. Visit our Extra Mustard page throughout each day for more offbeat sports stories.
