Why it made sense for Steelers to pass on potential trade for Julio Jones

Julio Jones was recently traded to the Tennessee Titans. Here’s why the Steelers did the right thing by not entertaining the notion. 

When it was made known that the Atlanta Falcons were willing to trade one of the greatest receivers in the game over the past decade, the thought is enough to intrigue everybody in the football world. Regardless of the situation, fans of every team fantasize about the idea of being able to land a superstar player like this via trade.

Obviously, we knew that the Steelers were never going to be in play for this type of deal. Landing Julio Jones would have been far too costly, and Pittsburgh would have had to work desperately to find a way to absorb his salary.

Even if Pittsburgh could have gotten the money to work out in a way to be able to trade for the All-Pro receiver, this probably would have been unwise. It made far more sense for the Steelers to pass on entertaining any sort of deal for Julio Jones.

Steelers didn’t make a mistake ignoring Julio Jones

Make no mistake: Julio Jones is still a very good football player, and he’s going to help make Ryan Tannehill and the Titans a better team for the next few years. However, there were far too many reasons why this would have been a bad move had the Steelers traded for Jones.

For starters, Pittsburgh currently has terrific depth at the wide receiver position. With JuJu Smith-Schuster unexpectedly returning after the wide receiver market fell off, the team has four very capable young receivers who can step up to the plate on any given game with JuJu, Chase Claypool, Diontae Johnson, and James Washington.

Though Smith-Schuster could sign a lucrative new deal with a different organization in 2022, it would have been a complete luxury making a blockbuster trade for a player at a position that is already one of the strengths of this team. If we want to nit-pick even further, adding a player like Julio could have potentially stunted the development of a player like Johnson or Claypool as they would likely see much less opportunity in 2021.

However, the biggest reason why the Steelers did the right thing not entertaining a Julio Jones trade is because of the much-needed draft capital to help rebuild this team in 2022 and beyond. Though losing a 2nd-round pick in 2022 and a 3rd round pick in 2023 wouldn’t be the end of the world, but the Steelers may need to use that draft capital to move up and get a quarterback next April.

As of now, there are several promising quarterback prospects projected to come out in the 2022 NFL Draft. With Ben Roethlisberger gone after this season, and only Mason Rudolph under contract for one more year, 2022 could be the perfect time to finally invest high draft capital in a quarterback since taking Roethlisberger all the way back in 2004.

I do worry about Julio Jones a little bit in the AFC – especially with Pittsburgh’s current cornerback situation. If these teams somehow get matched up in the playoffs, it will be important to keep him in check. However, the Steelers made the right move not offering a trade for Jones. Let’s trust the next man up and keep our draft stock intact for the future.