The Julio Jones rumors have heated up this week and maybe we should start taking the Patriots more seriously when it comes to potentially landing the wide receiver.
Speaking on The GM Shuffle podcast, Mike Lombardi, who is a former Patriots executive, discussed how the organization would view it and said he believes they "will be in it."
“Now, the Julio Jones rumors, I don’t doubt that," he said. "I don’t doubt that. Again, I think what the Patriots would have to look at with Julio is can they actually keep Julio on the team for two years? Because there’s nothing they do in New England that is not about sustainable values. So they are always asking the question if we bring this guy in, can we keep him for more than two years? They have made a lot of mistakes in this area. Mohamed Sanu two years ago. They brought him in and they gave up a [second]-round pick for him and he lasted barely a year. I am not saying it’s perfect because nothing is ever perfect.
"But the reality here is I truly believe they would have to take a look at their cap. They know they are going to be tight on their cap next year based on what they did this year, but adding a player like this guy could certainly help them. That would certainly give their offense that one guy they need that would make everyone else better and then they could go off to the races. It would make [Nelson] Agholor better. It would make [Kendrick] Bourne better. I see them being in this. I really do.”
Jones, who is 32 years old, played just nine games last season and finished with 51 catches for 771 yards and three touchdowns. Prior to last year, he had six straight seasons with at least 1,394 yards.
He is set to have of $15.3 million during the 2021 season, and $11.513 million during the 2022 and 2023 seasons. New England is one of the few teams in the league who could make his high salary cap number work and a trade would need to be executed post-June 1.