Julio Jones Fantasy Outlook Underwhelming Even After Signing With Buccaneers

If we were heading into the 2019 NFL season, the idea of Tom Brady throwing to Mike Evans, Chris Godwin and Julio Jones would be pretty much unfathomable.

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have signed Julio Jones to a one-year deal, but it's not 2019 anymore. For the 2022 season three of those four players may still form a formidable offense, but fantasy football managers shouldn't get too optimistic about a bounce-back year for Julio.

Julio Jones Fantasy Football Outlook in Tampa Bay

We know Tom Brady can support three viable fantasy football wide receivers — he did it with Evans, Godwin and Antonio Brown. But that wasn't all about Brady's greatness, a big part of why all three could be reliable contributors is that they were all such good receivers.

The Tampa WR3 role isn't one that guarantees fantasy relevance for whoever wins it. Tyler Johnson played at least 60% of the Buccaneers' offensive snaps in six of the nine games Antonio Brown missed from Week 7 through 16 last season, but in that stretch Johnson still only averaged 2.2 receptions on 3.1 targets per game.

Jones is probably going to win the WR3 spot, as even past his prime he probably offers the Bucs more than Russell Gage or Tyler Johnson. But the fact that "is probably going to win the WR3 spot" is part of the pro-Jones argument should tell you all you need to know.

Jones was one of the best wide receivers of the last decade, but he's only made it through 19 games over the last two years, with a per-17 game pace of just over 1,000 yards in that time — all while serving as a starting wideout for his teams.

With a decreased role and another year of age and injuries building up, you just don't want to draft Julio in most fantasy leagues. After the signing he checks in at WR49 in The Duel's 2022 fantasy football rankings.

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Jason Schandl is not a FanDuel employee. In addition to providing DFS gameplay advice, Jason Schandl also participates in DFS contests on FanDuel using his personal account, username Jaymun. While the strategies and player selections recommended in his articles are his personal views, he may deploy different strategies and player selections when entering contests with his personal account. The views expressed in his articles are the author's alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of FanDuel.