Falcons make trade for Alabama WR Julio Jones
Alabama's Julio Jones (8) makes a catch for a touchdown as Georgia's Bryan Evans defends during the second quarter of an NCAA college football game in Athens, Ga., Saturday, Sept. 27, 2008. (AP Photo/John Bazemore)
FLOWERY BRANCH — Falcons general manager Thomas Dimitroff pulled off a major shocker, trading up into the first round to select wide receiver Julio Jones.
The Falcons reportedly sent their first, second and fourth round picks along with next seasons’ first round pick to move up 21 spots.
Here is Jones’ bio:
Julio Jones, Alabama, 6-3, 221: He is from Foley, Ala. He set school records with 194 catches, 3,287 yards and 43 touchdowns at Foley High. He was rated the No. 1 receiver in the nation by rivals.com and scout.com. He signed with Alabama over Florida State, Florida, Oklahoma and Texas Tech. As a freshman, he led the Crimson Tide with 58 catches. He also had 924 yards receiving and four touchdowns. In his sophomore season, Jones battled through a string of juniors. He rebounded to help the Crimson Tide win the BCS national championship as he caught 43 passes for 596 yards and four touchdowns. Last season, he caught 78 passes for 1,133 yards and seven touchdowns. He was noted for his downfield blocking in the run game. Also, he did have some problems with the occasional dropped pass. Despite having a broken bone in his foot, he turned in a phenomenal workout at the scouting combine. He ran the 40-yard dash in 4.39 seconds, had a broad jump of 11 feet, 3 inches and a vertical jump of 38 1/2 inches.
–D. Orlando Ledbetter, The Atlanta Falcons beat blog
Get instant updates on Twitter at AJCFalcons and you can join the Facebook Fan page at AJC Falcons.
Tell us what you think about the site
Customer Care »
Vacation stops, manage subscriptions and more
AJC Services
Sections
Other Editions
Visitor Agreement | Privacy Statement
© 2013 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
384 comments Add your comment
Falcon Fan 4 Life
April 28th, 2011
8:54 pm
Besides next years 1st round pick will be the 32nd pick
Assf
April 28th, 2011
8:55 pm
Horrible. AJ would have been worth it. Julio is just so so. Don’t get me wrong, he’ll probably be pretty good, but nowhere near AJ. He’s just not worth this. If we couldn’t get AJ, should’ve kept our original pick. Extremely disappointed Falcon fan… Almost nightmare scenario
Ben Hill Skeet
April 28th, 2011
8:55 pm
With Julio we will be good again so the pick next year wont matter much!!!
Think people think!!! If you have confidence in your team THIS is the kind of
move you make!!!! Learn some Football First!!!
M10
April 28th, 2011
8:55 pm
Great trade!We needed another receiver with good speed.Julio fits the bill.Also I heard we was close with making a trade with the bengals and taking Aj.
Brian F.
April 28th, 2011
8:56 pm
At least TD is not afraid to make moves !! Although definitely not the New England way of stockpiling draft picks.
BobDawg
April 28th, 2011
8:56 pm
….We have enough young guys and picks… Now it is tweaking time and we just made our Offensive Attack unstoppable… Pick your poison on who you stop now as a defense against us…
StormeeATL
April 28th, 2011
8:56 pm
Pretty heavy price, Jones is good, but how about your D? Maybe with the better offense GB will only beat you by 3 touchdowns this year
Andy
April 28th, 2011
8:56 pm
Ben Hill Skeet-
I have to agree with you on that. Dimitroff deserves some trust from the fans.
GO Birds!!
Assf
April 28th, 2011
8:56 pm
Bust
dadgumitpaw
April 28th, 2011
8:56 pm
They gave up the meat of their draft for two consecutive years. They only have one other pick this year in the top 150 players, and he’ll be in the 90’s! Next year, it will be almost as bad. I don’t think I have ever seen this kind of price paid for a #6 pick.
TrishaDishaWarEagle
April 28th, 2011
8:57 pm
Also, congratulations Cam Newton #1 overall pick, from the National Champion AUBURN TIGERS
Sure wish you had fallen to Denver.
McNasty
April 28th, 2011
8:57 pm
what a great pick, I think we canget a true defensemsn in the 3rd roung
Not Don Waddell
April 28th, 2011
8:57 pm
1. The Falcons did not give up too much. There is a chart that says exactly what needs to be done to move to a certain spot.
2. Dimitroff obviously did not see any impact players at 27.
3. With this set of skill players on offense + another year of maturity for Peters, Jerry, Witherspoon, Moore and company, this is going to be a 12 win team next year, so the Falcons’ 1st rounder is going to be in the 27-30 range again next year.
4. Jones gives the Falcons the two best blocking WR’s in the NFL outside of Pittsburgh. Yes, he drops a few balls, but learning from Roddy White, who dropped A LOT of balls early on, will give him a heckuva start in the NFL.
5. AJ Green is a better WR, but Jones is not far behind at all.
I am not overwhelmed by the pick, but it is exciting.
IndyFalcon
April 28th, 2011
8:57 pm
I agree with avenger…I feel dizzy
whm
April 28th, 2011
8:57 pm
Gave up entirely too much. I agree with many of the posters before me. He has questionable hands. All the draft picks we gave up are going to come back to haunt us. Nice comparison to the Ricky Williams pick. If this was poker, I would say Dimitroff just went all in. If the Falcons do not win the Super Bowl very soon, this is going to look really stupid.
Mystikal
April 28th, 2011
8:57 pm
I would’ve had no problem trading up for AJ Green or Patrick Petersen, but would’ve taken Julio 10th pick at the earliest. I give it an incomplete for now. They gave up a lot. We will have to see.
M10
April 28th, 2011
8:58 pm
For the people who say he’s not worth it,What the he## you think we would get with those other picks I like the agressiveness by the Falcons.
floze
April 28th, 2011
8:58 pm
I like it – TD has wiffed pretty bad recently on the #1 picks so he took a sure thing. I am a dawg and I love the pick. Besides with so many DE’s in this year’s draft – who is to say how the 10th DE taken in draft will turn out at 27.
TD has No clue
April 28th, 2011
8:59 pm
Usual TD mistake…. Taking an injury prone player. He will have plenty of company on IR. Hell, he cant even catch.
Stephen
April 28th, 2011
9:00 pm
If the Falcons are drafting in the 26 and up range this year and next, what difference does it make? They feel Jones will be an impact player. That is all that matters. If you are more interested in getting in bodies, then yes, Falcons did a bad deal. This team is close enough where they don’t need alot of rookie bodies. They are young enough. It’s about impact players and veterans to plug in holes now.
Old Coach
April 28th, 2011
9:00 pm
Do not panic fans!!! Look for the Birds to make one or two free agents signings. To get quality you have to give up picks or players. Relax these folks know exactly what they are doing.
powerglide
April 28th, 2011
9:00 pm
LOL @ all the dumb fans we have. Great trade, and if you disagree then call me out and I will proceed to school you. All the people saying our defense was horrible most have only watch the playoff game, if thats the case stop being a fan completely, we dont need you. Our D was stingy last year picking off qbs all over the place. Second if you are so dumb to think we wont get half these draft picks back through trading then you also need to stop being a fan and spreading your dumb all around like a virus.
Not Don Waddell
April 28th, 2011
9:01 pm
For all the idiots who keep saying that the Falcons “gave up too much,” no, they didn’t.
Here is the chart that defines what picks can be traded for other picks. It is used by everyone in the league.
http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/draft06/news/story?id=2410670
geoff
April 28th, 2011
9:01 pm
The Falcons gave up way too much. They still have pressing needs at defensive end and at Linebacker. How will they address them now?
M10
April 28th, 2011
9:01 pm
F### the New England way this is not New England.No need to stock pile picks all the time if your a team that does not need to rebuild.
DecDawg
April 28th, 2011
9:02 pm
The Falcons had to make the move with Cleveland or sit on there pick. AJ and Julio are the only true offense play makers in this 1st round. They tried to get AJ but Cincy wouldn’t give it up so the made the next best move! This is what winning teams do. Make the bold move to improve what was missing. Explosive plays! Julio will give them that treat with Roddy.
powerglide
April 28th, 2011
9:03 pm
geoff stop being a flacon fan please for all those that agree give me a ! symbol. We need linebacker help, have you even watched the nfl in the past 3 years? please stop spreading you dumb around
DUMB ARSE TRADE
April 28th, 2011
9:03 pm
That was awful!! Gave up way to much for Jones…Maybe for AJ but come on….awful move Dimitroff.
fansince74
April 28th, 2011
9:03 pm
The Falcons offense will be very explosive!
STUCK IN SC
April 28th, 2011
9:04 pm
I’m amazed that TD would give up this much for JJ. I think this is way to much to give up although I think JJ is a GOING to be a very good player but not great. We needed defense more, and surely didn’t need to give all those draft picks. My thinking is if you can’t get AJ you stay put at 27 and pick up a WR in the later rounds. Way too much for the Falcons to move up and not get AJ in my opinion.
Not happy!
whodat70816
April 28th, 2011
9:04 pm
That was a hefty price they paid for Jones….you guys better hope he’s worth it.
bob leblah
April 28th, 2011
9:04 pm
Not Don… you’re an idiot.. uhhh geee heres a chart and it works to a tee
MattMD
April 28th, 2011
9:05 pm
To whoever mentioned picking up WR’s in FA:
Those clowns TO and Chad Johnson would never be invited to join the Falcons.
TrishaDishaWarEagle
April 28th, 2011
9:05 pm
Now we have two burner WR’s who can stretch the field, block, and beat up on corners , and with Tony G all world tight end in the middle of the field they can’t continually double roddy, and our offense opens up hugely. yes we had a horrible game in the playoffs but we won 13 in the season and this is hopefully the piece of the puzzle we needed. Way to Go TD and AB.
powerglide
April 28th, 2011
9:05 pm
DUMB ARSE TRADE you can also stop infecting this blog wiht your dumbness , wow i never realized we had this many like seriously dumb fans, first off read ahead before making your dumb comment. We will get the picks back through trades at least half of them anyways, wow use some common sense, and julio jones is a beast, he was going to get taken in the next couple picks eihter way
Draft Guru
April 28th, 2011
9:06 pm
Great move. All they gave up were picks people…picks. Kepp in mind those picks will be towards the end of the rounds going forward. Julio is the man….
Ben Hill Skeet
April 28th, 2011
9:06 pm
Plus we have six more picks this year!!!
Way To Go Falcons!!
Falcon57
April 28th, 2011
9:06 pm
Hey D-Led!! I told you from the beginning that the Falcons were going to take a WR with their first pick! When Mike Smith completely omitted Mike Jenkins when asked about the WR corps heading in to this year and referred to needing ‘explosive’ plays, it was a no brainer!!! Now we have to wait and see what the remaining few picks provide.
sam
April 28th, 2011
9:07 pm
Matt Ryan’s got to be excited right now, and it’s not because of his new wife!
YourPoliticalAnimal
April 28th, 2011
9:07 pm
This guy had better be the Second Coming of Jerry Rice AND Michael Irvin . . . I wish my Bills had gotten the LB out of Texas A&M . . .
elviskl
April 28th, 2011
9:07 pm
sounds like a bunch of crybaby ga bullpup fans on here. to hell with ga. falcons obviously didnt want a stupid player on the squad.
bob leblah
April 28th, 2011
9:07 pm
powerglide is a tool, yeah you’re right we didnt need a defensive end or a lb, but lets trade 5 picks for a wr that has hands problems
Dr Henry
April 28th, 2011
9:07 pm
Wow! The Birds must think this guy is the second coming of Jerry Rice…..First reaction is that we gave up waaayyy too much!!! I hope Jones develops as they think he will.
powerglide
April 28th, 2011
9:08 pm
EVERYONE STOP SAYING WE GAVE UP TOO MUCH, YOU ARE MAKING YOURSELVES LOOK REALLY DUMB, YOU MUST HAVE FORGOT THAT WE WILL GET HALF OF THE BACK THROUGH TRADES HOW MANY PEOPLE HAVE TO SAY IT
Larry
April 28th, 2011
9:08 pm
What a disaster! This kind of nonsense makes me very unlikely to care at all about what happens to the Falcons. Julio Jones is a pretender – when he tries which isn’t often.
I Must Be Crazy
April 28th, 2011
9:08 pm
I think he’ll be a better pro than A.J. Stronger, better blocker. and can be a game changer. I don’t like the trade but the Falcons did get a heck of a football player.
STUCK IN SC
April 28th, 2011
9:08 pm
Not Waddell your the idiot, we are saying they should not have moved up at all unless they got AJ.
Pay freaking attention. Dumb arse!
JONESBORO SLIM
April 28th, 2011
9:09 pm
DOL
I stand corrected..this is a great move…we got some speed 4.3 forty broken foot and all ..this guy is a “field stretcher” faster than Green and a better blocker…now if TD get me that speedy back (DeMarco Murray 4.3 forty) that can turn the corner and catch the rock out of the back field then the division will belong to the Falcons and with that “I’ll see you on the hill”
powerglide
April 28th, 2011
9:09 pm
ok larry we actually hope you stop being a falcons fan, you can go hang out wiht the NO clowns
bob leblah
April 28th, 2011
9:09 pm
we gave up too much