Should the Cleveland Browns trade for Julio Jones?

Atlanta Falcons superstar wide receiver Julio Jones is rumored to be on the trade block. Should the Cleveland Browns go after him?

The NFL offseason doldrums may be in full swing, but there is never a shortage of news, and as for Thursday, it’s a rumor that the Atlanta Falcons are looking to trade wide receiver Julio Jones. Given the position the Cleveland Browns are in, they will always be linked to players potentially on the move, but Jones could make more sense than most.

Entering his 11th pro season, the future Hall of Famer is 32 years old and coming off a nagging hamstring injury that cost him six games in 2020. He’s routinely played through minor bumps and bruises throughout his career, but had missed just four regular season games from 2014 to 2019, so his long-term health shouldn’t be too much of an issue.

Jones’ 2020 campaign was subpar by his elite standards, but he still caught 51 passes for 771 yards and three touchdowns in nine games. Jones has just 60 touchdown receptions on 848 catches for his career, but is a perfect example of why judging receivers based on touchdowns is a bad idea. He had made six straight Pro Bowls, for however little that is worth, and was an All-Pro in 2015 and 2016.

Perhaps Jones is not the player he used to be (though his statistical impact shows no signs of letting up), but even if that is the case, he’s still one of the league’s very best receivers. He’s a nightmare to defend in man coverage and is adept at finding soft spots in zone.

He has terrific hands and ball skills, elite route running ability, and the deep speed to take the top off the defense. He consistently wins downfield and would provide the explosive plays that this offense desperately needs.

The Browns may have one of the NFL’s most expensive wide receiver rooms, but it is hardly one of the best. Odell Beckham Jr. missed most of 2020 with a torn ACL and had the misfortune of playing with the uncomfortable Baker Mayfield.

Jarvis Landry is one of the most overpaid players in the league for what he provides, which is quality zone-beating in the short area of the field, also known as a low-value skillset. Donovan Peoples-Jones and Anthony Schwartz have loads of physical talent but are both still extremely raw.

If Cleveland wants to seriously contend for a Super Bowl, they need to be able to throw the ball down the field. The Kansas City Chiefs, with their middling secondary, weren’t scared of the Browns receivers one bit, despite Mayfield playing the best football of his pro career.

Adding Jones changes that. Pairing him with Beckham and Schwartz in 11-personnel with David Njoku as the tight end gives Cleveland a ridiculously dangerous offense, led by a quarterback who was one of the league’s best after Week 6 of last season. The Chiefs wouldn’t dare of sitting in cover-1 press-man against that group.

Price is an interesting topic. The Falcons will reportedly be unable to land a first-round pick for Jones, which should make the Browns very interested in a potential deal. Say a package of Cleveland’s 2022 second-rounder, Detroit’s fourth-rounder, and a 2023 pick, perhaps a third. Cleveland will likely be in the market for a receiver in the first or second round anyway, so why not make that player Jones?

The Browns are in legitimate win-now mode, but cannot afford to mortgage the future to make that happen; they didn’t go 1-31 to create a two-year Super Bowl window. The goal was always to make this team a sustainable contender as long as they had a franchise quarterback.

Cleveland currently has a bit over $21 million in cap space, a number which will decrease as dead cap from void years kicks in and contract values escalate. The team does not have the money to absorb Jones’ deal without collateral damage, as team-friendly as his contract would be.

Provided he doesn’t demand a new deal (a stipulation that would surely be discussed in trade negotiations), Jones would cost $15.3 million in 2021 and $11.5 million in both 2022 and 2023, with dead cap a barrier to moving on from him.

That 2021 number is about $6 million more than Jarvis Landry will count against the cap this season, and he is the logical choice to be the casualty in this move.

With Landry’s dead cap hit, swapping Landry for Jones would result in a net decrease in cap space of around $5 million this season, and Jones’ $11.5 million hit in 2021 would be about $5 million less than Landry’s, so everything would even out financially, while providing the team with a massive upgrade on the field.

Jones and Beckham would be sharing targets with each other and the rest of Cleveland’s skill players, but winning fixes just about everything, and the Browns would certainly be doing a lot of that with an entirely revamped defense and a wide receiver corps that would suddenly be perhaps the NFL’s most threatening.

So, should the Browns trade for Julio Jones?

Yes. It makes sense both now and moving forward. It gives the team a much better shot at winning a Super Bowl while allowing them to retain financial flexibility and draft capital. It’s a win-now move, but it’s also a win moving forward move.

$11.5 million for a player who is still universally regarded as a top-five receiver is a steal, and even if Jones shows some degree of regression as he ages, he’ll still be better than the vast majority of players at his position.

Adding Jones to this offense would allow Baker Mayfield to take the next step towards reaching his ceiling, which is as high as anyone else in the league. If the Browns want to win Super Bowls, they need to improve their passing game. Jones instantly makes that happen.