Julio Jones revealed this week that he wants the Atlanta Falcons to trade him, which came as a surprise to some. Before the All-Pro made that admission, the belief was that the team planned to unload him in order to obtain so much-needed salary cap relief. Both of those things may be true.
Ian Rapoport of NFL Media said this week that Jones requested a trade. In an appearance on “The Rich Eisen Show” Thursday, ESPN’s Dianna Russini said that trade request (or demand) came after Jones found out the Falcons were shopping him around.
“The Falcons had been doing work over the phone probably since early March,” Russini said. “They started to put it out there that, ‘Hey, we’re open for business.’ They had a few teams and had some interest.
“The way I gathered the information since I started hearing about this a few months ago, it was Atlanta open to a trade and then Julio found out about it. And that’s how that began.”
You can hear more of Russini’s report below.
It is certainly plausible that Jones, a seven-time Pro Bowler, took it personally when he learned that the Falcons want to move on from him. That may have led to a situation where he essentially told the team, “You can’t fire me, I quit!”
For what it’s worth, Jones may not have ever wanted the public to find out that he wants a trade. We only know because he admitted it when Shannon Sharpe called him on live TV (video here). Jones may not have known he was on the air, which could lead to some serious trouble for Sharpe.
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