Buccaneers should call Hall of Famer to keep offense rolling

Is it overkill? Perhaps. But the Buccaneers don’t have many reasons to stay away from Julio Jones if they really care about winning.

This one always seems to get people riled up, but before we really get too far ahead of ourselves, break this down into the binary; do the Buccaneers have a better chance of winning the Super Bowl with or without Julio Jones? 

The answer to that question is obviously with Jones. That answer is with Jones for every team in the NFL. Injuries or not, Jones is one of the best wide receivers of all time and an obvious lock for the Hall of Fame, and a team like the Bucs could give him everything he is looking for.

Tampa doesn’t need a guy like Jones, but did they really need Kyle Rudolph? Did they need Akiem Hicks?

Even minor improvements at important positions help, and good teams have ways of never deviating from this thought process as they try to stay in contention. The Buccaneers should do everything in their power to stay dominant, and recent changes to the offense could create a bigger need for a guy like Jones.

The Bucs currently look primed to start the season with two proven and consistent commodities at wide receiver. Chris Godwin is a solid maybe, but the other three guys that could take the field for the Bucs as depth options are shaky at best.

Scotty Miller might not be on the team or playing at the level he was at in 2020, even if he is healthy, Cyril Grayson and Tyler Johnson are streaky, and Jaelon Darden hasn’t shown much of anything at the NFL level.

When you add in the loss of Rob Gronkowski and acknowledge the fact that the next pass-catchers up after Mike Evans and Russell Gage are Cameron Brate and Kyle Rudolph, you have a bit of a dilemma forming for a team that has a really tough schedule through their first four weeks and beyond.

The loss of Gronk is going to lead to more three and four wide receiver sets. The Bucs just don’t have enough proven options to count on in those sets to be confident against the best teams in the league.

It could work with Evans, Godwin, and Gage down the stretch with one other guy stepping up week to week, but Jones takes all of the question marks out of the equation.

Jones would be the best three or four in the league. If any of the starters get hurt, Jones is there to ensure that Tampa doesn’t go below a certain threshold for quality receiver talent.

If everyone is healthy, the Bucs go back to having one of the best and deepest wide receiver corps in the league; something that comes in handy when your tight end room goes from being one of the best to one of the most mediocre.

The money and reps look like the biggest hangup, but a team as motivated as the Bucs and a player in need of a ring as much as Jones should be able to find enough common ground to make this come to fruition.

The offense gets better, Brady keeps his weapons, and Julio Jones gets to play on a good team with a legitimate Super Bowl chance for the third time in his career.

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