The Falcons keep making life easy for the Buccaneers.
After several weeks of seeing the rumors that Julio Jones could be on his way out of Atlanta, the final nail could be in the coffin as Shannon Sharpe seemingly confirmed that Jones was done with his current team during a phone call on Undisputed. The Buccaneers are just laughing as they continue eying their next trophy.
The brief call, which many wonder whether or not Jones knows was on the air, featured a seemingly firm answer from Jones on his future in a Falcons jersey. Atlanta fans may want to stay off social media for a little while.
If Jones is set on getting out, especially with the conviction that he showed on the phone, there is almost no way that he will remain on this team or the NFC South.
While from a Buccaneer perspective, everything other than Jones leaving matters very little, there are still plenty of questions that remain that cause us to wonder why this moment ever came to pass.
The Falcons seemed pretty clear on their stance that this is still a win-now team. Taking Kyle Pitts over a quarterback like Justin Fields is a move that a team seeking a Super Bowl makes, not a team that is preparing to move on from their best offensive player in team history.
A breakdown has clearly occurred. Why the Atlanta coaching staff allowed the news that they were trying to find a trade for Jones and destroy the relationship will forever be hard to understand, but now the Falcons are moving much closer to rebuild-mode without a future at quarterback.
Matt Ryan is still an above-average option, and the Atlanta offense still has plenty of weapons, but the Falcons have set themselves back substantially if the current indications on the relationship between Jones and the team are true.
After an offseason of mediocrity and the potential to lose Jones, the Falcons took a massive step back without a plan for the future, and life continues to be great for the Buccaneers.
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