Dimitroff comes up aces on Julio
That worked. Tonight, the Patriots will play a Falcons team in Super Bowl LI whose big wide receiver draft gamble did the same.
Dimitroff knew the trade could define his career as a GM. Therefore, he had to make sure Jones was going to be a star after showing every indication that he would be.
Even when Jones was a prep superstar at Foley High in Alabama, ESPN televised one of his games to feature him. A consensus five-star recruit, Jones then went on to the University of Alabama, where he caught 179 passes for 2,653 yards and 15 touchdowns, pulling down first-team All-SEC honors as a junior before declaring for the draft.
But beyond his immense physical skills as a 6-foot-3, 220-pounder who ran a 4.39 40-yard dash, an intangible element to Jones’ game attracted Dimitroff and told him he would not bust.
“(Jones) also has toughness and competitiveness and a number of other things,” Dimitroff said. “I could run down the list of why we decided we were going to do that. It had a lot more to do than just on the field. It’s his work ethic, and his drive, and his focus and all of the great stuff that a lot of the great players have had.”
Jones also prides himself on being more than just a physical specimen.
“There’s a lot of talent in the NFL,” Jones said. “Even growing up for me there was a lot of talent around, but hard work outshines talent any day. I’m talented but I work hard. I work very hard.”
However, as has been welldocumented since Dimitroff made the deal, Patriots coach Bill Belichick, who has final say of his team’s every personnel decision, told his onetime protege it would not be wise.
“I think when I called him, it was a big move and I knew it was going to be a monumental move and a potentially historical move — and not one that was going to be a real fan favorite,” said Dimitroff, who worked under Belichick in scouting/personnel roles with both the Browns and Pariots. “I expected at the outset of the conversation to hear that Bill was thinking about my best interest and telling me (his dissent) that was one of those things that was going to be with me the rest of my career.”
Jones no doubt has lived up to his billing. A four-time Pro Bowler and two-time first-team All-Pro, including this season, he has caught 497 passes for 7,610 yards and 40 touchdowns in his five seasons.
But even with quarterback Matt Ryan on board when the Falcons drafted Jones, the team did not ascend to elite status simply by adding Jones. After reaching the NFC Championship Game in 2012, the Falcons went 1830 over the next three seasons and missed the playoffs each time.
Yet as the Falcons enter their second Super Bowl, they would not be here without Jones.
“It’s one of the toughest decisions a GM and a team and a coach they have to make because, one, the player has to pan out,” Patriots Hall of Famer Willie McGinest said. “He has to be a difference-maker and an impact guy. Julio is that.”
It cannot be overstated, however, the difference in philosophies of the two teams squaring off tonight when it comes to roster management. The Pats are famous for trading out of the first round to acquire more assets, a completely opposite move Dimitroff made.
“I just don’t see a team (like the Patriots) giving up all those picks for one guy,” said McGinest, now an NFL Network analyst, “because it’s more about the team than just one guy.”
But that one guy has his team playing for the Lombardi Trophy. In the end, the Falcons got what they paid for.
“It was pretty rich, but that’s all right,” fellow NFL Network analyst Steve Mariucci said. “If it works out and he’s productive, it’s worth it, right? And if he gets hurt then you’re an idiot for doing it. That’s just how it works.”
HOUSTON — Had it been a franchise quarterback and not a wide receiver, maybe what the Atlanta Falcons did to draft Julio Jones would have been viewed differently.
Trading away a boatload of draft picks or assets to move up to select a quarterback is common.
But a receiver? It’s a gamble most teams don’t make.
Yet Falcons general manager Thomas Dimitroff moved up from the No. 27 pick in 2011 to No. 6 when he traded the Browns a first-, secondand fourth-rounder that year and a first- and fourth-rounder in 2012, in hopes of landing Jones, which the Falcons did.
The only other draft move for a receiver that comes close to that scale was when the 49ers traded with the Patriots in 1985 to move up from No. 28 to No. 16 for Jerry Rice.