The Atlanta Falcons may have parted ways with Julio Jones earlier this month, but new head coach Arthur Smith believes the team will benefit from the trade in the long run.
Smith, who appeared on Cris Collinsworth’s podcast, explained why he felt that trading Jones, which Atlanta received a second-round pick and 2023 late-round pick swap for, was a “win-win.”
“We knew the issue with the cap, and then obviously the cap went down this year, coming off the bizarre year with the pandemic, the cap actually shrunk,” he said. “So, we knew there were going to be some big decisions we would have to make coming up. The way everything worked out, we feel pretty good. We feel like it was a win-win. With the salary cap, and Julio going to Tennessee and us right now being able to solve our short-term issue with the cap.”
The Falcons saved $15.3 million in salary by trading Jones and Smith’s comments confirm that was a priority for the Falcons this offseason.
Jones is also 32 and coming off a year in which he played only nine games.
With the team in the midst of a rebuild and drafting highly touted tight end Kyle Pitts, the trade made sense despite being a tough decision to make as the Falcons now have more wiggle room with the cap and an additional draft pick next year as they hope to quickly turn things around.
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