FLOWERY BRANCH — Falcons Pro Bowl wide receiver Roddy White was so moved by the team’s trade that enabled them to draft wide receiver Julio Jones that he made a 52-second video welcoming Jones to Atlanta.
White, who led the NFL in catches with 115 last season, posted the video on his website roddywhite.tv. It was titled, “Roddy welcomes Julio to the ATL: A draft day welcome from Roddy to Julio Jones.”
“I’m excited about our pick,” White said. “We moved up. We got Julio Jones. I can’t want to see him. [I] can’t wait to get him on the squad. [I] can’t wait to interact with the young man. Welcome to the NFL.”
White also noted that a part of Jones’ rookie chores will be to provide him with doughnuts on Fridays and cheeseburgers on Wednesdays.
Jones had not seen the video yet, but when told of his assignment he looked at coach Mike Smith and said, “I better write that down.”
No change in philosophy
Falcons general manager Thomas Dimitroff, Sporting News’ two-time NFL executive of the year, didn’t see the trade as a deviation from his build-through-the-draft-first philosophy.
He believes the team has enough developing young players who will continue to improve. He stressed that the Falcons needed an impact player from this draft. If he had kept the picks, he would have merely added more young and unproven talent to an already young roster.
ESPN draft analyst Mel Kiper had listed the Falcons’ top need as a defensive end. So why didn’t they go after one of the defensive ends when they moved up?
“In our mind, the explosiveness that we were going to get with a player like Julio outweighed what we were going to get from a defensive player in the first round, hence the very aggressive move,” Dimitroff said. “We will never get away from the idea that we truly believe that if we see something that we want in terms of team-builders, we’re going to be aggressive and go after them.”
Jones’ injury history
In January 2009, Jones had surgery to repair his left shoulder and wrist. In the spring of 2009, he had hernia surgery.
Last season, he broke his left hand in the sixth game of the season and had surgery to insert a plate, but didn’t miss a game.
Two days before the NFL scouting combine, he was diagnosed with a stress fracture in his left foot. He had surgery to have a screw implanted to repair the fracture.
“The injury, we’re definitely comfortable with that,” Dimitroff said. “Without getting into specifics, he’s healing up well from his foot injury. He obviously has played through injuries. He’s only missed one game in his career. He is a tough, very resilient guy, and looking into his injury background, they weren’t injuries that were of concern to us.”
Dimitroff noted that Jones has 10-inch hands when asked about his penchant for the occasional dropped pass.
“He can snatch the ball all around his body,” Dimitroff said. “We’ve seen it. We’re very comfortable with that, and he’ll continue to work on his concentration, his ability to get up field, and he’ll make sure that he secures the ball just like any of our receivers do. That was not a concern of ours.”
Air Smitty
Even with the addition of Jones, Smith said don’t expect the Falcons to abandon their powerful running game.
The Falcons averaged 118.2 yards rushing per game (12th in the NFL) last season. In 2009, they averaged 117.2 (15th) and in 2008 they average 152.7 (second).
“We’re going to be a team that is still going to be a physical football team,” Smith said.
