Falcons owner Arthur Blank: Julio Jones will be in Atlanta 'forever'

ATLANTA — Falcons owner Arthur Blank was a little busy hosting 31 other NFL owners and league commissioner Roger Goodell on Tuesday, but he did take time out to address receiver Julio Jones' absence from the organized team activities (OTAs) in Flowery Branch.

"It'll be fine. It'll be fine. It's the process we have to go through. It'll be fine," Blank told reporters from The Whitley hotel in Buckhead.

However, during his impromptu, one-one-one chat with 11Alive Sports' Alex Glaze, Blank was more effusive and concrete about Jones' status.

"I love Julio. He loves me. He loves Atlanta. He's going to be here forever," said Blank, the Falcons' longtime owner.

As for a new or updated contract, Blank kept it simple: "We'll talk to him directly about that, and that's between us and him. We've always treated our players respectively, competitively and done whatever we have to do to make a winning team on the field."

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Jones' planned no-show has sparked numerous debates in Atlanta over the last five days. As such, various theories have been posited, regarding the Alabama product's true motivation for skipping routine spring workouts, despite having three years left on a contract extension that reset the receivers' market back in 2015.

a) Does Jones seek an adjustment on the current contract extension (five years, $71.2 million ... expires after the 2020 season)?

b) Is Jones angling for a trade leading up to training camp? This would be an extremely rare occurrence. Excluding the whole Terrell Owens debacle from 2005, which prompted the Eagles to suspend and then later release their embattled star, the last game-changing receiver to be dealt right before training camp was John Jefferson in 1981--going from the high-octane Chargers to the pass-happy Packers.

c) Or is Jones happy with his contract and the Falcons, but simply wants a mental and physical break from football, leading up to next month's mandatory mini-camp (June 12-14)?

It's worth noting: Unlike OTA work, automatic fines are doled out to players with unexcused absences from the mandatory mini-camps.

The 29-year-old Jones, a two-time all-pro, has averaged 103 receptions, 161 targets, 1,579 yards and six touchdowns per year over the last four seasons (2014-17). On the flip side, Jones posted only three TDs last year for Atlanta.

Jones' big extension from a few years ago still includes base salaries of $10.5 million (2018), $12.5 million (2019) and $11.4 million (2020) over the next three campaigns.

The source of Jones' dissension might involve the recent mega-contracts doled out to Jarvis Landry (Browns, five years, $75 million) and Mike Evans (Buccaneers, five years, $82.5 million). But the way things are progressing, Jones most likely won't make any public comments until the Falcons' mandatory mini-camp next month.

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