I do not think there is much hesitation regarding the age, but there is hesitation regarding giving up a first which is what teams do not like to do (unless you are the Rams). If you are giving up a 1 you want to know you are getting a player for the next decade and not a player for the next 3 years as that is what you want from your round 1 picks anyway. You are not going to get that with JJ. What you are going to get is a great player for the next 3 years on a below-market contract.
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Signings, Cuts, Trades
- Thread starter RavensMania
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I do not think there is much hesitation regarding the age, but there is hesitation regarding giving up a first which is what teams do not like to do (unless you are the Rams). If you are giving up a 1 you want to know you are getting a player for the next decade and not a player for the next 3 years as that is what you want from your round 1 picks anyway. You are not going to get that with JJ. What you are going to get is a great player for the next 3 years on a below-market contract.
QuothTheRaven
Veteran
Come on now, not every 1st round pick is Lewis/Reed/Lamar. That's just disingenuous.
but we havent seen that - we've got one season where he was hampered by a lingering hamstring and no evidence that he's on the downturn...
in fact almost none are...
ndub
Ravens Ring of Honor
We also haven’t seen the 2022 1st round pick be either a star Raven for life or not either. And the facts are as you get older, you tend to get more injury prone unless you either don’t get hit much or you don’t exert yourself physically as much aka run/jump/etc
drjohnnyfever
Pro Bowler
I don't disagree with anything you are saying, but you're making the assumption that he's actually going to play with his existing contract even though he has stated he wants a new one. The 18-20 is too expensive for this team given what they need to do already in the next couple of years and the fact that they invested capital in the draft to solve this issue on the cheap. I'm firmly in the camp of right player, right contract. If EDC can make that work somehow, I'm not disputing that Julio would - likely - provide instant impact. But altho some may want to discount the injury and his age, I don't think they can be completely overlooked or devalued to the point you over pay either in salary or draft picks to just get him at all costs. That I disagree with.
In fact, somewhere buried on this thread, I offered the option of trading with ATL before we signed Sammy Watkins and before being spurned by JuJu and others. Problem is now that we have spent money already. If we hadn't, I would be in sign Julio no matter the cost camp.
airconteka
MVP
Been studying Bateman and Wallace film this week, the fuck we need Julio. Calling it now Bateman will be OROY and Wallace will be runner up.
ndub
Ravens Ring of Honor
Exactly. And we also have Hollywood. And Andrews. And the most dominant run game in the league. We have absolutely ZERO need for Julio. Some get so sucked into names
rmcjacket23
Ravens Ring of Honor
Again, if I'm a team, I have zero concerns about "what Julio wants" from a contract perspective. He's got $15.3M fully guaranteed this year, which I don't think he could argue is too little, and he has virtually no leverage after that. The leverage only exists when he goes to a new team and plays well, and they need him badly.
While not universal, there aren't many teams in the league that are going to seriously entertain a contract restructure or extension for a player that a) still has 3 years left on his existing deal and b) just signed current deal less than two years ago. Like if I were a GM, I'm not even having 5 seconds of conversation about it. If you hate the deal now, its almost unfathomable that you liked it 18 months ago when you signed it, which means you made the mistake, and now you live with it.
And if he hates it enough to take a stand on it, he can not show up, pay millions in fines, and sit out the season, in which case the team isn't that much worse off than they were before he got there. And if I were the GM and was told he won't play for my team without a new deal, pretty easy reason to not do the trade to begin with.
Frankly, all this back and forth is pretty useless to me. Like its not entirely impossible we would trade for Julio, but all indications everywhere is that the time for that to happen is long in the past. The time to do it was before you used a first round pick on a WR a month ago, and when you potentially had the cap space to do it. If something happens with your roster in the short term that changes that, i.e. Hollywood or Bateman tears an ACL or something, then the situation will be dramatically different. But all this discussion to me about "whether he's valuable enough" or "bargain of contract" and "he's better than anybody we have" and all that stuff really is just totally irrelevant. There's like 50 players in this league, at a minimum, that I'd love to see be a Raven today that would make this team better. And if we just ignore trade compensation, cap impact, etc., we can talk about bringing in those players all day long. But its a waste, because chances are it won't happen.
airconteka
MVP
Years of sucking of drafting WRs are the reason people want Julio. The Bateman / Wallace picks will change that, plus I still have hope for Proche
ndub
Ravens Ring of Honor
Forgot about Duv too. We are good to go, even if one of Bateman/Wallace don’t pan out their rookie year
i think proche's the guy who can change his standing the most this camp - year 2 with a proper offseason and the chance to carve himself out a role as a slot with some route-running, physicality and great hands - i dont expect him to factor in but he's the guy who could come out of nowhere to be an impact-maker this offseason
but he will have to win his way onto the team this year via special teams (and not as a returner) or else he's gonna ride the inactives again or get cut
Ellicottraven
Ravens Ring of Honor
As long as it is a WR from Atlanta, I'm appeased.
ndub
Ravens Ring of Honor
Some Willie Snead in him
Potentially - think that’s the style of guy he’ll have to become with maybe a bit more quickness in shorter areas
not a lock he’ll get there but he’s got a chance to develop and I wouldn’t be surprised if he can become something like that kind of reliable WR 3/4 type
rmcjacket23
Ravens Ring of Honor
I think it would take a very strong showing in the preseason or a preseason/in-season injury for him to be anything higher than a gameday inactive.
Hollywood, Bateman, Watkins and Duvernay feel like locks to be ahead of him on the depth chart. So unless he somehow manages to wrangle the returner job away from Duvernay, that puts him #5, at best. Wallace the 4th rounder seems like a general lock to make the team, which means he's competing for a spot with Boykin, since I can't see them carrying more than 6 WRs on the 53 man. And the 6th guy is almost certain to be inactive, and it wouldn't surprise me some weeks if they even only dressed 4 WRs.
So he would have to beat out both Boykin and Wallace on the depth chart just to be considered a possible gameday active. Boykin I wouldn't be surprised by. Wallace I would. From a draft position standpoint, Proche has the lowest standing of the three, and for some odd reason, we still appear to like Boykin.
He's going to need to play well + get help in my opinion.
which is why i said that ultimately special teams will be his way onto the gameday inactives - it would probably mean that tylan wallace ends up riding the inactives which as you say doesn't seem super likely but it's not impossible
if he wants that spot he's going to have to carve himself out a role as a key special teamer in a non-returner capacity which i dont think is impossible
JAAM
Hall of Famer
“Mom, can we have Julio Jones?”
“No. We already have Julio Jones at home.”
Julio Jones at home:
wait, is he your fourth son.