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Julio Jones will blow by 1,000 yards on the season in just ten games when the Falcons play the Eagles this Sunday. He’s on pace to not just break but shatter every single receiving record for this Atlanta team. And he’s adding NFL milestones at a crisp rate, as well, including this one.
Julio Jones has 465 career catches, the most in NFL history in a player's 1st 75 games.
— Randall Liu (@RLiuNFL) November 4, 2016
And he's only played 74 games pic.twitter.com/qkNAuXxNFV
When you consider that Jones has had plenty of quiet games in his career, this is pretty remarkable. Through his first 34 games, he had 174 receptions, representing his first three seasons, which was good but not necessarily remarkable. Over the last three seasons, representing 40 games, Julio has 291 receptions for 4,434 yards and 19 touchdowns. It is fair to say that is one of the most ridiculously effective stretches in NFL history, and he’s showing no signs of slowing down.
If you’re wondering where he stands in the team history books at this point—which is fair to wonder on a weekly basis—it’s worth noting that Julio is less than 200 yards away from Terance Mathis for second on the team’s all-time receiving yardage list, and 108 receptions away from Mathis for that mark. Roddy White’s 808 receptions, 10,863 receiving yards and 63 touchdowns are all within reach for Julio within 3-4 years if he continues at his current pace, and I’m not going to bet against him.
Congratulations to Julio, and to this Falcons offense, which is setting these kinds of milestones left and right in 2016.