Listen: A.J. Brown makes his pitch to land Julio Jones

The race to land Julio Jones is officially on, with the star receiver making it known this week that he’s done in Atlanta. Naturally, that has thrown gasoline on the fire of the speculation regarding the Tennessee Titans, who certainly need a receiver opposite of A.J. Brown.

Speaking of Brown, he took to Instagram today, leaving a voice message for Jones — and then he posted it for the entire world to hear. Listen below.

Jones is now 32 years old and would count 23 million against the cap in 2021. The Titans currently have about $3.5 million in cap space, which would mean that the team would have to execute a contract restructure or two to make this deal work.

That’s possible, as Mike Herndon points out, with a simple restructure of Ryan Tannehill’s contract.

From there, the question becomes, what does it take to land Julio? Reports say Atlanta is seeking a first round pick, but it’s hard to imagine giving that up at this point with Jones coming off of a season that saw him appear in just nine games.

What do you give up for a guy that may or may not have a couple of good seasons left in him? That’s up to Jon Robinson to decide, but his players certainly aren’t being shy about voicing their desire to land Julio.

For what it’s worth, there is a potential out in his contract following the 2022 season that would result in just $7.75 million in dead cap money. That may be notable here with looming new contracts coming down the road for A.J. Brown and Jeffery Simmons.

Jones’ contract expires following the 2023 season.

As of today, the Titans were second in the gambling markets to land Julio, trailing the Patriots who jumped up to even money.