FLOWERY BRANCH, Ga. — Julio Jones announced his retirement from the NFL on Friday, ending a 13-year career that should land him in the Hall of Fame when his time comes.
That career began in true Julio fashion — with fireworks. The Falcons made one of the notable trades in NFL Draft history, sending five picks to the Cleveland Browns to move up 21 spots from No. 27 to No. 6, before selecting Jones and adding a much-needed explosive element to their offense.
From the moment he first donned the No. 11 jersey for Atlanta, Jones lived up to his lofty price tag. He was twice named a first-team All-Pro, made seven Pro Bowls with the Falcons, including six straight from 2015-19, and surpassed Jerry Rice as the fastest player in NFL history to reach 12,000 career receiving yards.
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Let's take a quick moment to appreciate all the exciting moments Jones gave Falcons fans by recalling 10 of his best moments in Atlanta.
Julio's big breakout
It didn't take long for Jones to have his first 100-yard receiving game. In fact, he had two under his belt by Week 5. However, Week 9 of his rookie season marked the first time he went from Julio to Juliooooo. It was almost wiped away, though.
Jones had missed two games with a strained hamstring when he returned to action for a road game against the Indianapolis Colts. Looking as explosive as ever, Jones caught three passes for 131 yards and two touchdowns. His first NFL score came on a 50-yard bomb that he caught between a pair of defenders. His second was a simple slant he took 80 yards.
A pair of beauties during the 2017 season
We're only on our second moment, and I'm already going to cheat — That's just how many there are to choose from. There were a pair of plays from the 2017 season that are easy to overlook because of when they took place but would make the top of any other highlight reel.
The Week 7 matchup against the New England Patriots was supposed to be a revenge game for the Falcons, but we can go ahead and skip right to the closing minutes of the fourth quarter. Without much to hang their hat on all night, the offense reached the red zone for just the third time. On first down from the 1-yard line, Ryan lofted a pass to Jones that looked in jeopardy of getting intercepted by Malcolm Butler. That is, until Jones pulled a move that would make any parent whose played basketball against a child smile and ripped the ball up and away from Butler.
Later that year, during a 34-31 win against the Seattle Seahawks on "Monday Night Football," Jones made a catch that evoked memories of his spectacular play in the Super Bowl. Blanketed on the right sideline by two defenders, Jones leapt for a ball that could easily have been considered a throwaway, hung in the air for a suspicious amount of time and snatched it while getting hit. Oh, and he managed to somehow get both toes down.
Of all the plays mentioned here today, this might be the most enjoyable to revisit because it's one most have probably forgotten.
The Green Bay Game
It's impressive in it's own right that I might need to specify which Green Bay game I'm talking about here — the other one is coming later — but Jones' performance in the 2017 NFC Championship game belongs on his Mt. Rushmore.
He finished that game with nine catches for 180 yards and two touchdowns, helping the Falcons route the Packers 44-21 and get the tastiest revenge for the disappointment felt in the 2010 postseason. What's craziest about that stat line, though, is that it still doesn't reflect how dominant Jones was in this game.
His 73-yard, catch-and-run touchdown on a slant at the start of the third quarter was a truly back-breaking moment and looked eerily similar to a play Jones had against the Carolina Panthers in Week 4. He also made an exceptional 23-yard catch over the middle while being battered by multiple defenders in this game. Jones was undeniable and so were the Falcons.
The ultimate two-way player
Long before any Travis Hunter discussion ever took place, the tantalizing glimpses of what true two-way greatness could look like were provided by Quintorris Lopez Jones. On a few occasions throughout his career, Jones performed the greatest impersonations of a lion hunting down its prey that I've ever seen.
I can only imagine what went through the minds of some of these defenders, who suddenly found themselves in an upside-down reality with Jones hawking them down.
Screening all the house calls
Few plays have felt as improbably before they happened as Jones' walk-off touchdown in Week 2 of the 2019 season. After a disappointing 2018 campaign, the Falcons began 2019 with an 0-1 record and looked to be in danger of dropping to 0-2 on Sunday Night Football.
That was until Jones caught a screen pass from Ryan on a fourth-and-3 from the Falcons' 46-yard line, found a crease and outran every player on the field for a go-ahead score with just over two minutes remaining in the game. It was one of the last great individual moments from Jones in a Falcons uniform.
The pirouette
This is the only way I can think to describe one of the most memorable touchdowns of Jones's career. It came during a 43-28 victory on the road against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2016, a game that featured other memorable moments such as Keanu Neal introducing himself to Mike Evans.
But Jones's spinning circus catch was quintessentially Julio, so let’s just run the tape.
Back-corner catch in the NFC Championship
Before the 2016 Falcons recalibrated what the ceiling for an offense could be, the 2012 group was considered the perfect blend of smashmouth and explosiveness. In that formula, Jones was the incendiary element, always ready to create a big play.
On the first snap of the second quarter, Jones raced down the left sideline towards the Georgia Dome end zone. San Francisco 49ers cornerback Tarell Brown was in off coverage and didn't bite on an inside fake, so he remained in great coverage when Ryan lofted the ball in Jones' direction. It didn't matter. Jones plucked the ball out of the air, transitioned it to one hand before tapping both toes down for a touchdown that gave Atlanta a 17-0 lead.
Things didn't go well from there, unfortunately, but it helped cement Jones as a player who showed up in the biggest moments and on the biggest stages.
Three times over 250
For the majority of his career, Jones was on the shortest list of players you'd be willing to believe pretty much anything you heard about them from a game. It's like if someone said Steph Curry dropped 85 points in a game or Shohei Ohtani pitched a perfect game and hit two home runs — I'd be absolutely stunned, but I'd believe it.
Jones belonged in that category, and it's in part because he simply did things nobody ever had before like surpassing 250 yards in a single game three different times.
His first came in an eminently entertaining Monday Night Football game against the Green Bay Packers in 2014. Packers receiver Jordy Nelson was a marquee player at the time and gained 146 yards with two touchdowns, but Jones stole the show with 11 catches for 259 yards and a score.
His second time breaking the 250 barrier was also his first time cracking 300 yards. In Week 4 of the 2016 season, Atlanta's offense had a true statement game thanks in part to Ryan and Jones. The pair connected 12 times for 300 yards and a touchdown. Ryan finished with 503 yards and four touchdown passes. Crazy.
His third time occurred in Week 12 of the 2017 season against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. In the 34-20 win, Jones had already gained 138 yards and scored twice by halftime, prompting a familiar question in the press box: Is this going to be one of those games? It certainly was. He ended up with 253 yards and an incredible photo to boot.
Mossing Kuechly
This play had a huge part in spoiling the Carolina Panthers' pursuit of perfection during the 2015 season. With just two games to go, the 14-0 Panthers rolled into Week 15 against a 7-7 Falcons team that was 1-6 in their previous seven games.
Trailing 10-7 late in the third quarter, Ryan avoided pressure and rolled to his left only to toss up a prayer to No. 11. Jones rewarded Ryan, as he so often did, by leaping up and over one of the best defensive players in the league. He snatched the ball from Luke Kuechly and raced the rest of the way for a 70-yard score.
In the spirit of full disclosure, I should mention that this play was my phone background for a couple of years in college. Can you blame me?
The Super Bowl catch
I've never seen a catch with a higher degree of difficulty pulled off in such an important moment. It's a shame nobody talks about this play, because it's one of the best in Super Bowl history.
Thank you for taking this trip down memory lane. It was impossible to truly list all of the incredible moments Jones has provided, and there are many great ones I couldn't include. If you have any favorites you'd like to share or reflect on, please submit them in our mailbag and we will share them in a future edition.
Jones is one of the best and most unique players to ever wear a Falcons uniform. He follows in the lineage of players like Deion Sanders and Michael Vick, who reshaped the game due to their style of play and unique abilities. When it comes to pure talent, very few in league history can match Jones.
Wide receiver Julio Jones was unanimously selected to the 2010-2019 Atlanta Falcons All-Decade Team.
