Somebody Explain to Me Why the Falcons Drafted Kyle Pitts Just to Turn Around and Trade Julio Jones

In the trade saga which will seemingly never end, there was a new report Thursday from Jeff Schultz of The Athletic that the Falcons are, in fact, actively seeking a trade partner to deal Julio Jones. This isn't really anything new, given the fact that this has been talked about incessantly since the NFL Draft, but it is an established reporter finally saying it definitively.

So here's my question: if the Falcons knew this whole time their plan was to get rid of Jones, why did they spend the No. 4 overall pick on a tight end whose highest possible level of production results in the offense being a net zero?

If Kyle Pitts comes in and is the best tight end in the NFL on day one — which is obviously unlikely to happen — Atlanta's offense is the same as it was in 2020. And even then, it could still take a dip because the best tight end in the League isn't the same as having Jones. It would seem that the whole point of drafting Pitts would be to put him alongside Jones, Calvin Ridley and Hayden Hurst and hope that aerial attack is prolific enough to overcome some deficiencies on defense.

But if Jones is gone, all of a sudden your offense is incredibly reliant upon Ridley and a rookie tight end, with Mike Davis as the primary "threat" — 1,531 yards in 22 career games — out of the backfield. That's quite a difference.

And I think Pitts has the potential to be one of the best players taken from the 2021 Draft when all is said and done. But in the Falcons' immediate future, trying to make him a replacement for the best receiver of the last decade doesn't make your team better. If you didn't like any of the quarterbacks still available, that's fine, but take a defensive player who's going to be an immediate upgrade somewhere.

Drafting Pitts and pairing him with Jones and a head coach in Arthur Smith with an offensive background — particularly coaching tight ends — makes a lot of sense. Doing the former and then dealing Jones does not. If you draft a tight end fourth overall, it better be to create a superteam on offense and compete right now.

And it's not like trading Jones is the only option to save money. As Schultz notes, the Falcons could re-structure Grady Jarrett's contract to lessen his $21 million cap hit this season and not have to get rid of anybody.

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The Athletic — Jarrett, a leader and their best defensive player, has a 2021 cap hit of $20.833 million (third highest behind Ryan and Jones). The club wants to keep him long-term, so a contract restructure or extension is on the table. Either would drop his cap number significantly. But the Falcons have yet to approach Jarrett’s camp about a new deal.

But if the Atlanta front office is to get its reported wish, Jones will be on his way out the door soon and Pitts will have some pretty massive shoes to fill from the jump.