Julio Jones can still break Falcons records in the season’s final eight games

We’ve nearly made it through the bye week! Next up, a procession of difficult teams for Atlanta to try to eke out just their second win against, which means there’s probably a lot of difficult-to-watch games in our immediate future.

At this point, you’re likely wondering what you possibly have to look forward to, which is a more than fair question that doesn’t have a lot of great answers. For those of you who don’t enjoy records changing hands and really just are hellbent on getting this season over with and nabbing the best draft pick possible, go ahead and skip this one. You are suffering as valiantly as anyone else and I’m not going to try to convince you to give a rat’s ass about Julio Jones and the reception record.

If you’re still reading, hello. Julio Jones can still break the franchise reception record in 2019.

He’s not exactly on pace to do so at the moment, however. Julio’s got 50 receptions through the first eight games of 2019, leaving him 60 shy of Roddy White’s 808 career grabs. He’d need to average over seven grabs per game the rest of the way, which is hardly a daunting number for Julio Jones, but could be a little tough given his target share thus far in the season. Austin Hooper leads the team in catches and has just twelve fewer targets than Julio, and both Calvin Ridley and Russell Gage are going to be looking for more in the second half. With some of his all-time favorite secondaries coming up, including Carolina and Tampa Bay, it’s still probably unwise to bet against him.

Oh, and if Julio scores eight touchdowns he’ll tie Roddy for the all-time franchise lead in that category. Somehow that one seems a little more far-fetched, but it’s only a matter of time before Julio owns every receiving record this franchise has to offer and he’s just 30 years old. Let’s see how many he can cram into 2019.