New England Patriots rumors: Trade for Julio Jones makes perfect sense

A report by Ian Rapoport offers an interesting potential trade option for the New England Patriots to secure Julio Jones from Atlanta.

This is exactly the type of move New England Patriots should make to further bolster its offense, depending on the cost, of course.

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The Patriots’ draft record on wide receivers is abysmal and they should stay away. The way to go is definitely by trade.

Let’s look at this a bit more closely. Everyone in the NFL knows about Jones. He’s an All-time receiver who is a lock to enter the Hall-of-Fame. He’s a seven-time Pro Bowler and 2-time first-team All-Pro.

Additionally, in his 10 years in Atlanta (he’s 32 years old) he has scored 60 touchdowns and has amassed a 15.2 yards per catch average. He’s also a big-game player.

Look no further than his superlative performance against the New England Patriots in the Super Bowl following the 2016 season.

He was immense and the likely MVP if a certain No. 12 hadn’t been on the field.

Why should the New England Patriots trade for a 32-year-old when they can draft a younger player?

First, Jones if healthy (needs to be checked out thoroughly) is an immediate impact player and New England’s best wide receiver.

Also, the Patriots have spent Bob Kraft’s money massively this offseason in free agency. This is not a team built for the future. It’s built to win now. Jones would help them do just that.

And again, drafting wide receivers is not really the Patriots forte. They have been horrible in this, their latest fiasco being the first-round selection of N’Keal Harry in 2019.

Harry has a meager 45 catches in two years for New England. They can’t draft the position. At all. That’s why a trade makes great sense if they want more at the position than they have now.

Some may like the idea of trading up for a top wide receiver like Alabama’s DeVonta Smith this week, but others clearly don’t. The latter is correct.

Smith was the Heisman Trophy winner among other awards, a nice achievement, and had an absolutely colossal year in 2020 with 23 touchdowns and 117 receptions.

He was simply great in college but at 6’0′ and 166 pounds, don’t bet that he can take the punishment of 220 pound NFL safeties.

Yet, despite all that, since he’d take a bundle of picks from New England to secure his services high up on day one of the draft, he’s still definitely not worth the risk at 166 or 170 pounds or so.

So that gets the argument back to a trade. The Patriots’ lack of any acumen in drafting wide receivers is a solid reason not to draft any at all in the first four rounds of the draft.

For the Patriots, it’s an exercise in futility. That’s why a trade even for a long-in-the-tooth veteran like Jones is a much better option.

If healthy, Jones can still play even if he is only 80% of what he was in 2016. He’d still be the New England Patriot’s best. It’s not a crapshoot there as any draft pick by the Patriots of a wide receiver would be.

Their selections high up in the draft read like a who’s who of draft flops, and one of the positions in which they really fail is at wide receiver.

So a trade for Jones if healthy and the price is right makes good sense. If they can get another solid receiver in a trade who may be younger and healthy with a solid track record, that would work too.

Julian Edelman’s legacy goes far beyond football. dark. Next

But the admonition here for the New England Patriots is, with your top picks, just stay away from wide receivers (and corners and defensive tackles, as well).

Let’s not let that bad draft history repeat itself yet again.

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