Julio Jones out for the rest of the night against Packers with hamstring injury

The Falcons are hanging in this game, somehow, but they’re missing several critical pieces that might help enable a comeback. One of those pieces is an all-time great, unfortunately.

Per the team, Julio Jones is out with a hamstring injury, something he appeared to be fighting through in recent weeks. If you saw that news and thought “well, the season’s over,” you’re hardly alone in that regard.

Julio got to break Roddy White’s franchise reception record before exiting, but chances are he’ll be out multiple weeks as the team tries to preserve the future Hall of Famer’s long-term health. In the short term, it’ll be Calvin Ridley, Russell Gage, and Olamide Zaccheaus picking up the slack while he’s out.

We’ll hope Julio can get back on the field later in the season to give us something to look forward to, but this season is effectively over, so whatever allows him to be healthy for the next quality Falcons team is probably the best-case scenario.