I could see them getting rid of Jones solely because of cap purposes. They can draft one of the highly touted receivers this year, they have a very good #2 in Calvin Ridley, and the team is going nowhere. The issue is a team being interested in taking Jones' 20+ million cap hit.
Well, $5M of that has already been paid by Atlanta as a signing bonus. He's owed $15M for this year. The cap hits are atrocious for Atlanta.
Atlanta is begging someone to take him post June 1 since Atlanta only has a $7.75M cap hit for '21. (If they release him before June 1 they take a $40M cap hit in 2021 and if they trade him before June 1 his cap hit is $23M; they won't do either.)
Per Spotrac
A release after June 1: 2021 Dead Cap: $25,050,000 2022 Dead Cap: $15,500,000 2021 Cap Savings: $-2,000,000
A trade after June 1: 2021 Dead Cap: $7,750,000 2022 Dead Cap: $15,500,000 2021 Cap Savings: $15,300,000
Their only real option is a trade designated as being after June 1.
A team trading for him inherits his non-guaranteed salary of $15M for '21 and $11M for '22. Not bad for a proven WR1 but that can be renegotiated, too. IF he is healthy. And that's a Big IF with Julio who only played 9 games last year and it seems like he's always nursing one injury or another. Megatron retired at 30; at 32 Julio is close to the end and this could be a 1 year signing for him. I'm told he considered retirement for this year but decided to come back. Sounds like a 1 year rental to me.
The thought also occurs that Julio is doing Atlanta a favor by coming back for '21 so they don't take that massive $40M cap hit.
Health and desire are all important bc of the above.
For reference, BB paid 30 yr old Moss $5M for his deal in '07 and got one helluva ROI. ($9M/year over 3 years total)