Atlanta Falcons: No Real Interest In Julius Thomas?
There has been a great deal of talk the last couple of weeks about the Atlanta Falcons‘ possible interest in Denver Broncos’ tight end and free agent, Julius Thomas.
Among many who began to report the possible interest, NFL writer Chris Wesseling reported the possibility, as well as D. Orlando Ledbetter of the Atlanta Journal Constitution.
Those early reports were not at all far-fetched, and the buzz had a great many Falcons’ fans excited on Twitter. After all, Julius Thomas would be a great get for Atlanta in the minds of most, irrespective of whether he had a tremendous 2014 or not!
Let’s be clear though, Thomas did have a pretty good 2014. While the season’s end may not have turned out great for Thomas with all his injuries, the two-time Pro Bowler still had 43 receptions for almost 490 yards, adding 12 touchdowns to his stats through 13 games.
Thomas was the first tight end in history to record back-to-back 12 TD seasons!
According to stats provided by Pro-Football-Reference, the table below illustrates what a catch (pun intended) Thomas would be for the Falcons, as well as any team with the $ to snap him up.
Provided by Pro-Football-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 3/2/2015.
As you can see, in the last two seasons Thomas put together some fairly consistent numbers, contributing a great deal to the overall success of the Denver Broncos, and if you know Thomas you know how exciting the prospect of the Atlanta Falcons grabbing him would be.
To put an exclamation point on that excitement, in Wesseling’s article I reference above, Chris noted the following:
"In his excellent weekly Scout’s Eye feature, NFL Media analyst Daniel Jeremiah opined Monday on NFL NOW that Rob Gronkowski is the only tight end superior to Thomas right now.‘Skill-set wise as a tight end, he gives you everything,” Jeremiah explained. “He can run after the catch, he can post you up in the middle of the field, he has a great feel in the red zone. He’s an outstanding tight end and a big-time weapon for Peyton Manning.’"
The downside for any team would be the cost of acquiring Thomas, but then most teams who’ve expressed interest in him have a good deal of financial room to maneuver.
The Atlanta Falcons have been projected to have around $33 million in cap space to deal with. Certainly with all the recent mind-blowing cuts, Thomas is affordable.
But what we are now hearing is that the Falcons are NOT interested in Thomas. There’s nothing official out there of course, and you know well how rumors fly this time of year, but we did hear from ESPN’s Vaughn McClure on Twitter about the issue:
For those asking, I'm told "I don't see Julius in the picture there" in regard to Julius Thomas and the Falcons.
— vaughn mcclure (@vxmcclure23) March 2, 2015
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McClure doesn’t reveal his source in this case, but I’m curious where that came from, and whether there is any truth to the rumor.
Whatever the source, it should be interesting to see how all this pans out with Thomas, and whether he ends up a Falcon despite any rumors to the contrary.
What’s your take on Julius Thomas as a potential TE for our beloved Atlanta Falcons? Is he a player you’d love to see added to Matt Ryan‘s arsenal of tools? Let us know what you think!