Julio Jones' new deal projected to average $15.25 million
FLOWERY BRANCH -- Finished the Cover9@9 blog, which drops tomorrow morning at 9 a.m., a little early.
But before I can get back to the Atlanta Falcons 2015 Countdown to Camp series, I wanted to share CBS Sports business analyst Joel Corry's projection on Julio Jones' contract extension.
This is item 7 tomorrow and little preview of the Cover9@9. CLICK HERE for last week's Cover 9@9.
7. JULIO JONES CONTRACT PROJECTION: All of the Falcons front-office decision makers will be back in town at the start of next week and movement could be made on Julio Jones' contract extension.
The Falcons were able to get Matt Ryan’s contract extension done before the start of camp in 2013, but they had been working on that one for awhile.
There hasn’t been much work on Jones’ deal. But since the market is now set, it shouldn't take long to finalize his contract.
Jones is scheduled to play the 2015 season under his fully guaranteed $10.176 million option year salary. He's virtually a lock to receive a franchise tag in 2016 if he doesn't get a new deal. The wide receiver franchise tag number will be approximately $14 million in 2016 with a $150 million salary cap, which is less than a five percent increase over this year's $143.28 million salary cap. A second franchise tag in 2017 should be around $16.8 million, a 20 percent increase over Jones' 2016 franchise number under these conservative cap projections.The average of franchising Jones twice should be $15.4 million per year at a minimum. The $14 million per year average of Thomas and Bryant's deals is a little less than their two year franchise tag average of $14.1 million per year. A similar approach should put Jones' extension average in the $15.25 million per year neighborhood. His guarantees should be comparable to Thomas and Bryant's considering Jones would conservatively make a little under $41 million through 2017 with the year-to-year approach.
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About the Author
Honored by the Pro Football Hall of Fame in recognition of his "long and distinguished reporting in the field of pro football," D. Orlando Ledbetter, Esq. has covered the NFL 28 seasons. A graduate of Howard University, he's a winner of Georgia Sportswriter of the Year and three Associated Press Sports Editor awards.
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