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Should the 49ers Care that the Eagles Signed Julio Jones?

Jones most likely will start opposite A.J. Brown outside while Devonta Smith lines up in the slot. On paper, that's a scary trio of wide receivers.

Grant Cohn

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This would be huge news in 2017.

The Eagles have signed 7-time Pro Bowl wide receiver Julio Jones, who's now 34. Should the 49ers be concerned? The Eagles are their main rival in the NFC.

Jones most likely will start opposite A.J. Brown outside while Devonta Smith lines up in the slot. On paper, that's a scary trio of wide receivers.

In reality, it's two good wide receivers and Jones, who needs to retire. Last season, he played with Tom Brady on the Buccaneers, and caught just 24 passes for 299 yards and 2 touchdowns. He couldn't run fast and he couldn't get open. He looked like he ran a 4.8. He looked like a tight end lined up at wide receiver.

The only issue for the 49ers when they match up with Jones is his size -- he's 6'3", while starting cornerback Deommodore Lenoir is 5'10". But they faced each other last season, and Lenoir held Jones to just 38 yards on 5 catches. He made no impact.

Signing Jones changes nothing between the 49ers and the Eagles. They're still the two best teams in the NFL, and the Eagles still have the slight edge because they're stronger than the 49ers in the trenches. They can push around the 49ers' smallish offensive line, plus they can push around the 49ers' elite defensive line, because the Eagles offensive line is the best in the NFL. No other team in the NFL can beat the 49ers in both trenches like Philadelphia can. That's the story when these teams face each other.

Jones is a mere footnote.

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Grant Cohn
GRANT COHN

Grant Cohn has covered the San Francisco 49ers daily since 2011. He spent the first nine years of his career with the Santa Rosa Press Democrat where he wrote the Inside the 49ers blog and covered famous coaches and athletes such as Jim Harbaugh, Colin Kaepernick and Patrick Willis. In 2012, Inside the 49ers won Sports Blog of the Year from the Peninsula Press Club. In 2020, Cohn joined FanNation and began writing All49ers. In addition, he created a YouTube channel which has become the go-to place on YouTube to consume 49ers content. Cohn's channel typically generates roughly 3.5 million viewers per month, while the 49ers' official YouTube channel generates roughly 1.5 million viewers per month. Cohn live streams almost every day and posts videos hourly during the football season. Cohn is committed to asking the questions that 49ers fans want answered, and providing the most honest and interactive coverage in the country. His loyalty is to the reader and the viewer, not the team or any player or coach. Cohn is a new-age multimedia journalist with an old-school mentality, because his father is Lowell Cohn, the legendary sports columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle from 1979 to 1993. The two have a live podcast every Tuesday. Grant Cohn grew up in Oakland and studied English Literature at UCLA from 2006 to 2010. He currently lives in Oakland with his wife.

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