Atlanta Falcons superstar Julio Jones has many fans. But it does not appear as though former NFL player and current analyst Heath Evans can be included in that group.
Talking with The Boston Herald, Evans called Jones “soft in a lot of ways.” In an interview on Wednesday, Evans expanded his thoughts, citing a few plays early in the NFC Championship Game against the Green Bay Packers.
“It’s second-and-11, Green Bay bangs him on the play and it’s an incomplete,” Evans said on Zolak & Bertrand, via CBS Boston. “He walks off the field and Matt Ryan is able to pick it up on third-and-11 without him. And then he comes back on the field on first down. I’m thinking, if that was the Randy Moss I played with. If that was [Terrell Owens], Jerry Rice, the greats that Julio gets thrown into the mix with — talent-wise and spectacular play-wise rightfully so, but not overall proof of his NFL longevity yet. I think that’s blasphemous.”
Evans was not done.
“Randy, never, on third-and-11 are you kidding me? He’s going to the huddle no matter how hard he was hit and saying, ‘Tom you better throw me the ball and we’ll get them back.’ That’s just something that rubbed me the wrong way,” Evans continued. “There’s something about that temperament that drives me nuts. He has more talent in his left pinky than I have in my whole body. I never would have stepped off the field on third-and-11.”
As is so often the case with these hot takes, Evans has a point. The only problem is his point is only valid in a vacuum.
Jones has not been 100 percent for a long time this season. He’s been nursing a toe injury for a good portion of the season. Even with an offense as potent as Atlanta’s, third-and-11 is a low-percentage play. If there’s ever a good time to rest, it’s in that very situation.
That’s what Jones was doing. If he was 100 percent healthy, chances are that he would have been on the field. If it was third-and-seven, it’s hard to imagine that he wouldn’t have been out there. The same is true if it had been a more critical time in the game. If Evans has some strong evidence to the contrary, his point is more valid.
Instead, though it seems like he’s blatantly ignoring a huge part of his point. Jones being off of the field on a third-and-11 early in the game wasn’t “soft,” it was smart. It was a smart play from Jones and by extension, Dan Quinn and Kyle Shanahan. Taking steps to be sure that one of the game’s best players is healthy throughout the NFC Championship Game (and Super Bowl) is what coaches should do. If that makes the player soft in the eyes of people like Evans, so be it.