EAGLES SIGN VETERAN FA WR JULIO JONES TO ONE-YEAR DEAL
The Philadelphia Eagles have signed seven-time Pro Bowl wide receiver Julio Jones, the team confirmed on Tuesday.
Jones, who spent last year on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers with Tom Brady, now has a chance to write another chapter of his career as he enters into the final stages of his NFL playing days. With the Eagles’ Super Bowl ambitions, the 34-year-old has another chance to end his career the right way, and hopefully with a Super Bowl ring.
The new deal is a one-year, undisclosed contract that adds Jones to Philadelphia for his 13th NFL season. The Eagles recently placed fourth-year and third-string wide receiver Quez Watkins on injured reserve, and after working out former Saints’ receiver Marquez Calloway and Colts’ Dezmon Patmon on Monday, turned to Jones who is a reliable playmaker when fully healthy.
A former first-round pick, Jones has had a Hall-of-Fame caliber career but is still missing the Lombardi cherry on top. The 2011 sixth overall pick owns two NFL receiving titles after leading the league in receiving yards in both 2015 and 2018 and was selected to seven Pro Bowls in eight seasons, between the years 2012 and 2019. Jones is also a two-time First-team All-Pro and led the league in receptions in 2015.
Although his last two years in Tennessee and Tampa Bay weren’t as impressive as his ten seasons in Atlanta, largely due to a streak of bad luck with injuries, Jones is still one of the game’s best talents and mismatches at the line of scrimmage. Standing 6-foot-3, the Alabama-born wide receiver is a huge red zone target and now has an opportunity to add another piece to what’s an impressive arsenal of weapons for fourth-year quarterback, Jalen Hurts.
Jones played in Tennessee with 26-year-old wide receiver AJ Brown and the two will reunite once again in the midnight green of Philadelphia. Brown pushed the Titans to trade for Jones in 2021, something that has many convinced that Brown had something to do with the Eagles’ new signing. Jones also played with Eagles’ wide receiver Olamide Zaccheaus in Atlanta between 2019 and 2020.
Across 155 career games, Jones has registered a total of 903 catches for 13,629 receiving yards and 63 touchdowns, eclipsing 100-plus receiving yards in 59 of those games. Jones’ career receiving yard total is the most of any active player in the NFL.
With both Brown and Jones back on the same offense after a stellar 2021 season in which the Titans reached the divisional round, it sure feels like there’s still “unfinished business” for two of the game’s most talented wide receivers.
Jones joins a talented receiver room that not only includes Brown and Zaccheaus but also former Alabama Crimson Tide wide receiver and first-round pick, DeVonta Smith. Jones and Smith hail from the same college football program and will have no problem getting acclimated. Jones is expected to start for the first time this season on Sunday night’s blockbuster game against the Miami Dolphins at Lincoln Financial Field.
In other news, the Eagles have also signed fourth-year cornerback Josiah Scott from the Pittsburgh Steelers practice squad to their active roster, bringing back the former Michigan State Spartan after he spent 2021 and 2022 in Philadelphia. Scott’s agency, JL Sports, confirmed the signing on Tuesday.
-Maher Abucheri
Twitter: @pabloikonyero
Photo: Lisa Ferdinando. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.