Julio Jones has been an afterthought in recent years, as injuries have outweighed the production for the future Hall of Fame wide receiver. There was once an era which Jones was the best receiver in football, yet those days have passed.
Regardless of Jones' production over the last few seasons, he still believes he has something left in the tank.
"I ain't going to make no expectations but just keep watching and I can show you," Jones said to reporters Wednesday, via NBC Sports Philadelphia. "My mindset is definitely to dominate. ... Wherever they need me to go and be, I'm going to do that at the best of my ability."
The Philadelphia Eagles signed the 34-year-old Jones this week thanks to injuries at wide receiver. DeVonta Smith is dealing with a hamstring injury while Quez Watkins is also on injured reserve with a hamstring injury. That leaves A.J. Brown, Olamide Zaccheaus and Britain Covey as the only healthy wideouts on the Eagles roster.
Philadelphia needed help. In came Jones.
"You're always looking at the explosion. Does he still have the juice in his legs and the ability to run, ability to get out of cuts, the ability to make plays, and all those things we thought were still good," Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni said. "You can look at the stats. You can do all those different things but it's about putting the tape on and seeing what you see and what you think, and you know, then seeing him work out the other day, we were like, yeah, he's still got a lot of pop in his legs, and we're excited about that."
Jones has made seven Pro Bowls and earned two First Team All-Pro selections in his 13-year career. He has 13,629 career yards receiving (the most in NFL since 2011, his rookie year), and has lead the league in yards receiving twice (2015 and 2018).
Only Jerry Rice (16,377), Randy Moss (14,465) and Marvin Harrison (13,944) have more yards receiving than Jones after their first 12 seasons. Jones had 1,300 yards receiving in six straight seasons (2014-2019), tied with Holt for the longest streak in NFL history (only Rice has more 1,300-yard seasons in a career with seven). His 59 games with 100 yards receiving are third-most in the Super Bowl era, trailing only Rice (76) and Randy Moss (64).
Injuries have been part of the reason Jones hasn't been productive in each of the last two years (55 catches, 733 yards, three touchdowns in 20 games). Jones missed seven games in each of the last two seasons with hamstring and knee injuries, slowing down one of the greatest starts for a wide receiver in NFL history.
The Eagles still think there's some good football left in Jones, an upgrade at No. 3 receiver who can play the outside and allow Smith to take advantage of defenses in the slot. Philadelphia already has a good passing game, but Jones gives Jalen Hurts an extra wide receiver to target when the team goes downfield.
"Make no mistake about it, though. This pass game still is going to go through DeVonta (Smith), A.J. (Brown), and Dallas (Goedert). So, I think that's a little bit of a difference, right, the role he's playing, right. More of a supporting role than a highlighted role and we'll see how it continues to shape up," Sirianni said.
"But we still know he has the ability to make plays and we're going to need him to make plays."
