Julio Jones to join Brady in Buccaneers’ receiving corps
Tom Brady has lost a couple of prominent passcatchers from last season’s Buccaneers team, but the Tampa Bay quarterback is getting a big-name addition to his receiving corps.
After multiple reports surfaced Tuesday, the Buccaneers officially announced on Wednesday the signing of Julio Jones, a seven-time Pro Bowl selection with the Atlanta Falcons who spent last season playing for the Tennessee Titans, to a one-year deal. In addition to veteran depth, the 33-year-old wide receiver could provide some immediate help to Tampa Bay as fellow wideout Chris Godwin continues to recover from a torn knee ligament.
The Titans had released Jones in March.
The news about Jones arrived the day after Godwin was reportedly cleared for training camp without needing to be placed on the physically unable to perform list. That bodes well for Godwin’s ability to
contribute early in the season, but given that he underwent knee surgery in January, the Buccaneers may want to bring him along slowly. The team also has a healthy Mike Evans, a four-time Pro Bowl pick, to lead the receiving group, and it signed another former Falcon, wide receiver Russell Gage, in March.
More recently, Tampa Bay added tight end Kyle Rudolph not long after Rob Gronkowski, one of Brady’s all-time favorite targets, confirmed his retirement. Talented but mercurial wide receiver Antonio Brown was released by the Bucs in January, following a meltdown during a game against the New York Jets.
It remains to be seen how much help Jones can offer Tampa Bay on the heels of a brief but disappointing stint with Tennessee, which traded a pair of draft picks for him in June 2021. Jones’s lone season with the Titans was marred by injury, and over 10 games he accumulated career lows in catches (31), yards (434) and touchdowns (one). It was the second straight year in which injuries kept Jones from playing far less than a full season; he appeared in just nine games for the Falcons in 2020.
In those final games with Atlanta, however, Jones posted strong numbers in yards per reception (15.1), yards per target (11.3) and yards per game (85.7). That offers cause for hope that he still can pose a problem for opposing defenses.
Jones was a major thorn in Tampa Bay’s side when he was a member of the Falcons. Over 16 games against the Buccaneers, he racked up the most receiving yards (1,841) by any opponent, tied for the most receptions (114) and posted the second-most touchdown catches (11, per ESPN).
The sixth pick in the
2011 draft out of Alabama following a blockbuster trade between the Falcons and Cleveland Browns, Jones immediately justified the investment. He notched 959 receiving yards as a rookie and in 2014 embarked on a six-year stretch in which he never caught fewer than 83 passes for 1,394 yards. Jones is the NFL’s all-time leader in receiving yards per game (91.9) and Atlanta’s career leader in catches (848) and yards (12,896).
ELSEWHERE Hall of Fame:
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Bowl-winning coaches
Mike Shanahan and
Mike Holmgren are among 24 seniors, coaches and contributors selected as finalists for the Pro Football Hall of Fame’s Class of 2023. Shanahan, who led the Denver Broncos to consecutive Super Bowl titles, and Holmgren, who won with the Green Bay Packers, are joined by 10 other coaches/contributors, including New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft and former Cleveland Browns/Baltimore Ravens owner Art Modell. The list of 12 former players includes four-time Pro Bowl quarterback Ken Anderson and five-time Pro Bowl wide receiver
Sterling Sharpe. The remaining list of players: linebackers Randy Gradishar, Maxie Baughan, Tommy Nobis and Chuck Howley; offensive linemen
Bob Kuechenberg; twoway player Cecil Isbell; defensive linemen Joe Klecko and cornerbacks
Eddie Meador, Ken Riley and Everson Walls.
Bengals: Cincinnati
● quarterback Joe Burrow has had a successful appendectomy, but there is no timetable for his return to the field, coach Zac Taylor. Taylor said he didn’t expect the star quarterback to fall behind in practice.
Burrow had surgery Tuesday and Taylor expected Burrow to be released from the hospital Wednesday, which happened to be the first official day of workouts for the Bengals.
Broncos: NFL owners will decide Aug. 9 whether to approve the proposed $4.65 billion sale of the Denver Broncos to the Waltons, heirs to the Walmart fortune and America’s richest family. The league’s finance committee met Wednesday and unanimously recommended the transaction for approval. Twenty-four of the 32 teams are needed to approve the sale of the storied franchise from the Pat Bowlen Trust to Rob Walton; his daughter, Carrie Walton Penner; and her husband, Greg Penner.
Walton, 77, was chairman of Walmart from 19922015. He is the eldest son of founder Sam Walton
and Helen Walton and has an estimated net worth of nearly $60 billion. He would become by far the richest owner in the NFL if the sale is approved as expected.