Falcons general manager Thomas Dimitorff said the team plans to have wide receiver Julio Jones “here for years to come” on Thursday at the scouting combine.
The team has had internal discussion about working on a contract extension for Jones.
“There’s no question that we’ve had discussions about Julio and obviously everyone else on our roster,” Dimitroff said. “He’s one of the guys that we feel is one of the best talents in the league.”
The Falcons are evaluating the current roster, but know they want to lock up Jones, who had 104 catches last season.
“We will continue to look at what we have here,” Dimitroff said. “When we start putting together the team and thinking about being creative as team-builders it’s important for us to look at nuances. Money and how we are going to put everything together. This is a much more difficult than what it was 10 years ago in my mind.”
The Falcons have some options with Jones.
“You take a quarterback, who’s going to be very expensive and then take wide receiver and a couple of other positions and make sure that you are paying market value and also making sure that you have enough space on the team to do the right thing,” Dimitroff said. “Plain and simple, we want Julio to be here for years to come.”
The Falcons are not overally concerned about Jones’ foot. He had a second screw inserted in a cutting-edge medical surgery after he was injured in the fifth game of the the 2013 season.
“He’s coming off his most recent challenge and he did really well this year,” Dimitroff said. “Again, he’s done a really nice job in training and he’s very mindful of his body.”
