Falcons wide receiver Julio Jones knows that he’s due for a hefty pay increase.
But the former Alabama star, a two-time Pro Bowler who erupted for 104 catches last season, is not too worried about it and doesn’t plan to hold out to force the team’s negotiating hand.
“I’m going to be accountable to my teammates,” Jones said after minicamp practice Wednesday. “I’m not going to hold out. That would be selfish.”
Jones is set to enter the last year of his rookie contract with a base salary of $10.176 million in 2015. According to the NFLPA salary-cap report, the Falcons have $16.009 million in salary-cap space. The issue will be working a deal that doesn’t cripple the team’s long-range goals.
Dallas wide receiver Dez Bryant, Denver wide receiver Demaryius Thomas and Cincinnati wide receiver A.J. Green and Jones are in similar situations. However, teams around the league seem reluctant to match or top the lucrative contracts signed by Arizona’s Larry Fitzgerald in 2011 and Detroit’s Calvin Johnson in 2012.
Fitzgerald has since renegotiated his seven-year, $113 million deal, with $45 million in guaranteed money. Johnson signed a seven-year, $113.45 million deal, with $53.25 million guaranteed, and his $16.207 average per year is troublesome for teams.
Thomas and Bryant received the franchise tag of $12.8 million for 2015.
If the Falcons and Jones can't work out a long-term deal, he could get the franchise tag in 2016 and 2017 and receive approximately $30.8 million, according to Joel Corry, a former sports agent and CBSSports.com sports-business analyst.
The Falcons have not expressed any long-term concerns about Jones’ foot, which knocked him out of the 2013 season and required a bigger screw to be surgically implanted into the fifth metatarsal of his right foot.
He ranked third in the league in receptions (104) and receiving yards (1,593) last season. Jones’ 88.4 receiving yards per game was tops in NFL history.
“The only thing I can do as a player is come out here and compete,” said Jones, who’s represented by super-agent Jimmy Sexton. “That’s on my agent, (general manager) Thomas (Dimitroff) and the Falcons. I want to be here for a long time, but it’s on them to make that decision.”
While the team has expressed a desire to retain Jones, he doesn’t know the status of any purported contract talks.
“I don’t even know if they are talking about it,” Jones said. “I haven’t talked to Jimmy about no contract. I haven’t talked to TD about it. You just hear words about it or whatever. ‘We want to get this done’ or ‘We want to get that done.’ I don’t know.
“I just come to work.”
Falcons coach Dan Quinn appreciates Jones’ approach.
“He’s been absolutely one of the best competitors that I have had the privilege to be around, and I’ve been around a lot of them,” Quinn said. “For me to connect in that way about what he stands for as a player and what he stands for as a man, he’s a really unique guy. I love his attitude and his approach that he brings to our team.”
Jones has been hard at work trying to pick up the new offense that offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan is installing.
“Kyle makes everything look the same,” Jones said. “We have several routes off the same stem. We’re gonna run the ball and be very balanced.”
Jones is not following the other receivers’ situations. He was unaware of Bryant’s Twitter rant about how $12.8 million couldn’t provide his family financial security.
“Dez is Dez,” Jones said. “He’s going to say and do what he wants to do. Everybody is entitled to say what they want to say, and the media is going to create and do what they want to with it.
“But as far as me and how I look at it, I’m coming out here to play ball.”
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