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Tuesday 13 October 2020 19:31, UK
The Atlanta Falcons should consider putting All-Pro wide receiver Julio Jones on the trade block, former NFL quarterback Chris Simms said on Pro Football Talk.
The Falcons (0-5) are winless through the opening five weeks of the 2020 season, seeing head coach Dan Quinn and general manager Thomas Dimitroff lose their jobs this week and Simms believes it is time for the team to reset too.
Jones, since being drafted No 6 overall in 2011, is a seven-time Pro Bowl selection and two-time first-team All Pro, but the 31-year-old has been hampered by injuries so far this season, while team-mate Calvin Ridley - six years his junior - is the fourth-leading receiver in the NFL right now.
"I understand it," Simms said of Atlanta's move to fire Quinn and Dimitroff. "Dan Quinn, I've got to think he lost the ear of the team a little bit, and Thomas Dimitroff, the team was too top heavy.
"There are only a few guys getting a huge chunk of the salary cap and we've seen, for the third year in a row, when they get injuries, they can't survive and win games because of the thinness of their team.
"If I'm Atlanta, with the way their team looks, I'm putting Julio Jones on the trade block.
"It's a lot of money, and they might have to pay part of that salary, but they might have to start looking to do what the Miami Dolphins did, trade away and get assets to rebuild the team. I'll be interested to see if they take that route."
Jones is often linked with the receiver taken two spots ahead of him in the 2011 draft, Cincinnati Bengals' A.J. Green and Mike Florio and Simms were similarly in agreement that the 1-4 Bengals could also look to unload him ahead of the trade deadline on October 29.
Green, like Jones, is a seven-time Pro Bowler, but he missed the entire 2019 season to injury and has struggled to build a rapport with new quarterback and No 1 overall pick Joe Burrow through the first five games of 2020 - just 14 catches for 119 yards and no TDs.
"If the ship has sailed in Cincinnati, get what you can," said Florio. "If Mohamad Sanu was worth a second-round pick at the trade deadline last year, and Emmanuel Sanders was worth a third-round pick, I'd like to think you'd at least get a second-rounder.
"Get it, move on and use that piece to build the team you need around Burrow next year."
Simms agreed, adding: "I don't want to say they don't need him [Green], but they kind of don't.
"They've got other weapons at receiver that can flourish together, with Burrow and the young running back Joe Mixon. Green seems kind of out of place, he's from the 'old Bengals' - the team that went to the playoffs five years in a row.
"I still think he's got talent; I don't know if the system fits him in the way it should. They're not getting him the ball.
"He's a great asset, they should try to trade him in my opinion."
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