The Falcons didn’t give Julio Jones more money to get him to report to training camp, but they did give him money sooner.
A league source tells PFT that Jones’ revised contract with the Falcons gives him a $4.4 million signing bonus and reduces his base salaries by $1.5 million this year and by $2.9 million next year.
The $4.4 million signing bonus will be spread out over 17 weeks, so what the Falcons effectively did is take $2.9 million of Jones’ 2019 salary and moved it into his 2018 salary, although for salary cap purposes that $4.4 million is spread over the remaining three years of his contract.
A $2.9 million salary advance is nothing to sneeze at, although it remains to be seen whether it’s enough to keep Jones satisfied next year. It’s possible that Jones and the Falcons will again be facing a contract dispute at the start of training camp a year from now.
For this year, however, Jones is satisfied, and so are the Falcons.