It hasn’t been long since Tom Brady announced his return to the NFL, but he’s already working on recruiting Julio Jones to the Buccaneers.
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The Titans traded for Julio Jones last year as they tried to bolster their receiving unit, giving up a 2nd round pick to acquire the former All Pro.
However, Jones’ season in Tennessee didn’t go as planned. He was injured for a large chunk of the year, playing in only 10 games out of 17. However, those 10 games also weren’t great.
He averaged 43.4 yards per game, a career low. He hauled in only one touchdown pass and averaged only 14 yards per catch, the second lowest mark of his career. The last two seasons have been defined by injuries for Julio Jones, but before that, he was definitely the best receiver in the game, putting up incredible numbers every year. Now, it looks like he may be past his prime as the Titans chose to release Julio after just one year.
Tom Brady is looking to recruit Julio Jones
If there’s one quarterback who’s made a living out of playing with players who appear to be out of their prime or players who aren’t exactly household names, it’s Tom Brady.
Of course, the biggest example of this is with Randy Moss. The Patriots pieced together a small little trade for Moss, snatching him away from the Oakland Raiders for a fairly low price because everyone believed that Moss had lost his touch after an underwhelming season with the Raiders.
That very next year, Moss would set the record for most receiving touchdowns in a season (23) and with Tom Brady, led a Patriots offensive unit that scored the most points in NFL history (at the time) and finished the year 16-0. He was named to the AP All-Pro first team for his dominant season.
Could we see that kind of season from Julio? Brady is actively recruiting Julio according to reports, and given how good the Bucs receiving core already is, Julio could see a lot of targets come his way as teams try to account for Mike Evans, Chris Godwin, and now Russell Gage too.
We’ll have to see where Julio ends up before we can debate any of this, but the thought is interesting. It’s likely that several teams are going to try and sign Julio for a small price, but if Tom Brady is pulling strings then, well, we’ve seen how this story ends before.
