By: JJ Lanier

TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services

If you ask a team what is the one thing that can derail a promising season, aside from injuries, it would be distractions.

Whether or not those distractions have any influence on the outcome of season, probably depends on who you ask. Depending on how the next few weeks play out which Julio Jones and his desire to renegotiate/restructure his contract, the Falcons may find out about soon enough.

Normally I’m all for a player getting as much as money as he or she can. Even though as fans we love the idea of loyalty, from both player and organization, professional sports are all about the bottom line. I don’t begrudge anyone trying to make as much as they can, while they can.

So, while I fully respect Jones’ decision and understand where he’s coming from, it’s just a little hard to get on board with the timing of it all.

When Julio signed his current 5-year deal, two years ago, he was the highest paid wideout in the NFL. He’s currently the 7th highest paid wideout and you could argue that he’s better than all the players making more than him, AJ Green being the one possible exception.

With the way NFL contracts are set up, in order for Jones to get as much guaranteed money as he can, he’s got to sign for an extended period. Essentially, he’s sacrificing prime market value down the road for the upfront cash. Regardless of how you or I feel towards football contracts, that’s just the way it is.

There are two main reasons I have an issue with timing of it. For one, he still has three years left on his contract. When most contracts are signed, depending on the player, management almost figures in that with a year or two left they are going to have to renegotiate.

Acquiescing to Jones’ request with more than half his contract still on the books, could have a rippling effect on other players Atlanta has intentions on extending down the road.

The second reason is I’m not sure his last two seasons have really warranted a renegotiation. Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely think Jones is one of the 3-4 best receivers in the league but he is coming off his two least productive seasons, back to back, since his first two years in the league. (I’m excluding the 2013 season when he was injured and only played in 5 games.)

Normally when you see a player wanting to revisit his contract it’s because he has outperformed his current salary; kind of hard to make that argument in this situation.

Trust me, I’d love nothing more than to have two years of subpar reviews at work, only to get a larger pay raise. It just doesn’t normally happen that way.

And I get that his dip in production isn’t solely on Jones’ shoulders; Atlanta’s offense as a whole struggled last year adjusting to Steve Sarkisian’s play calling. But having a solid season this year, proving that 2017 was more of anomaly, would only strengthen Julio’s case in asking for more money.

At this point it doesn’t look like the Falcons are going to bend and I can’t really blame them.

I suspect that at some point Jones will be back on the field with an understanding they’ll address his contract after the season. If he doesn’t, you probably won’t even have to ask how the distraction affected Atlanta’s season; I’m pretty sure you’ll be able to tell.