In April, ESPN's NFL Nation asked a simple question with complicated answers: what is the most impactful draft-day trade in each franchise’s history?
And while the James Pearce Jr. deal may be fresh in everyone's minds, there was no debate for the Atlanta Falcons: It’s Julio Jones. And it probably always will be.
On draft night in 2011, then-general manager Thomas Dimitroff traded No. 27 overall (2011 first round), No. 59 overall (2011 second round), No. 124 overall (2011 fourth round), a 2012 first round pick, and a 2012 fourth round pick to the Cleveland Browns for one thing… The No. 6 overall pick.
And 15 years later now that Jones’ career is complete, the move looks even more franchise-defining than it did at the time.
Inside the Julio Jones draft-day trade that defined a decade of Falcons football
Here’s the background: The Falcons were coming off a No. 1 seed and a humiliating playoff loss to the eventual Super Bowl Champions, the Green Bay Packers. The lesson from that night was obvious: Atlanta’s offense was good, but wasn't great.
It wasn’t explosive enough. They already had Roddy White. Most analysts expected a defensive player to be the pick at No. 27. Instead, Dimitroff pushed every chip to the center of the table for the most physically dominant receiver prospect in the draft.
He even sought counsel from Bill Belichick. The advice, famously, was essentially: don’t do this… Atlanta did it anyway.
The Browns did what was almost expected out of them, turning those five selections into zero foundational players… Phil Taylor, Greg Little, Owen Marecic, Brandon Weeden, and Trent Richardson.
Meanwhile, the Falcons got a player who would rewrite their record book. Julio Jones finished his Falcons career with:
- 12,896 receiving yards (franchise record)
- 848 receptions (franchise record)
- 60 touchdowns
- Seven Pro Bowls
- Two First Team All-Pro selections
- Five straight seasons of 1,400+ yards
- Three games with 250+ receiving yards (NFL record)
He became the fastest player in NFL history to reach 12,000 receiving yards, passing Jerry Rice’s pace. Jones paired with Matt Ryan to create the most dangerous passing offense the franchise had ever seen and helped lead Atlanta to Super Bowl 51 (no further comment here).
You can trace almost every meaningful Falcons moment of the 2010s back to that night in 2011 when Dimitroff ignored all common sense and trusted his evaluation.
And because of that, the most impactful draft-day trade in franchise history isn’t a question. It’s a reminder of what happens when a front office is bold enough to be right.
Julio Jones will be remembered forever.
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