'Julio Show' is working for Falcons

Sept 23, 2015

After the Falcons beat the Eagles, I opined that with good pass protection the Falcons can score points "in spite of a pedestrian run game with a heavy dose of creative plays featuring (Matt) Ryan to (Julio) Jones." The Falcons also beat the Giants without much of a run game using the Julio Show. How long can they keep it going?

Ryan has targeted Jones 26 times in two games, or 33 percent of Ryan’s total passes. Only one wide receiver in the league (New England’s Julian Edelman) has more targets, and only two have been targeted on a higher percentage of their team's passes (Edelman and Pittsburgh’s Antonio Brown). Jones has been a target on 19 percent of the Falcons’ total plays; only Edelman (23 percent) has been a more frequent target among NFL wideouts.

Few wide receivers in the league are targeted more often than Falcons star Julio Jones.

Player,team	Targets	Pct. targets*	Pct. plays+
Julien Edelman, NEP	31	34	23
Emmanuel Sanders, DEN	26	31	19
Julio Jones, ATL	26	33	19
Michael Crabtree, OAK	24	27	19
DeAndre Hopkins, HOU	24	23	15
Steve Smith, BAL	23	30	18
Calbin Johnson, DET	22	27	17
Antonio Brown, PIT	22	34	19
Jordan Matthews, PHI	22	25	18
Jarvis Landry, MIA	22	28	19
Keenan Allen, SDC	21	30	16
T.Y. Hilton, IND	21	24	16
Odell Beckham Jr., NYG	20	26	16
Brandon Marshall, NYJ	19	33	14
Allen Robinson, JAX	19	26	14
Doug Baldwin, SEA	17	24	13
Larry Fitzgerald, ARI	17	30	16
Ted Ginn Jr., CAR	17	25	12
Randall Cobb, GBP	16	29	14
Vincent Jackson, TB	16	30	13
Jeremy Maclin, KC	16	28	13
Anquan Boldin, SF	15	21	10
Brandin Cooks, NO	15	17	11
Pierre Garcon, WAS	15	26	11
Terrance Williams, DAL	15	19	11
A.J. Green, CIN	12	20	9
Alshon Jeffery, CHI^	11	16	8
Mike Wallace, MIN	10	20	9
Percy Harvin, BUF	10	20	8
Andrew Hawkins, CLE	10	21	9
Kendall Wright, TEN	8	15	6
Kenny Britt, STL	7	12	7

*Percentage of total team passes intended for player.

+Percentage of total team plays in which player was target.

^Missed one game because of injury

It's true that the NFL is a passing league. And it should be said that if you are going to be a one-man show, there aren't many better stars than Jones. Jones is tough to deal with because he's a big wide receiver who plays like it on the outside but also is a big wide receiver who can play small on the inside.

Edelman is a smaller wide receiver who does a lot of his work in the slot. The same goes for another oft-targeted wide receiver, Denver’s Emmanuel Sanders. Jones can do the short, quick, inside routes like those two and also fight off defenders on the outside, high-point deep balls or just run past defenders.

Theoretically it should be easier for a defense to limit a wide receiver than a running back. Defenses can deploy extra defenders to stop the run but there’s no way to prevent a running back from getting the ball. Denying wide receivers the ball is simpler, even if it takes extra defenders, so what happens when an opponent decides they aren’t going to let Jones beat them?

Maybe the better question is: does it even matter if they do? Jones is so versatile that Falcons OC Kyle Shanahan has moved him all around the formation. That was Philly coach Chip Kelly’s lament when reporters peppered him with questions about why the Eagles couldn’t just double team Jones all the time.

“If you try to double him, where is he going to be?” Kelly said.

Right now Jones is showing no weakness. If drops were a problem for him, they aren’t any longer: he’s had 59 straight catches without a drop, dating back to Week 12 of 2014, according to Pro Football Focus.

Pity Prince Amukamara. The Giants cornerback is a first-round pick, one of the top cornerbacks in the game, and yet reporters were asking him if it was unfair that his coaches left him to cover Jones without help on that 38-yard catch that set up the winning score.

“There’s seven million reasons why that’s not a lot to ask,” Amukamara said, referring to his base salary of about $6.8 million this season.

So far The Julio Show is a hit.

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