Falcons WR Julio Jones Will Play Against Vikings on Sunday
Falcons superstar receiver Julio Jones carries no injury designation heading into this Sunday's game against the Vikings at U.S. Bank Stadium.
That's huge news for the 0-5 Falcons, who haven't had Jones healthy and available for much of this season. He looked like himself with nine catches for 157 yards back in Week 1, but since then has missed a couple games and has only recorded six total catches while playing through a hamstring injury.
Jones is arguably the best receiver of the 2010s and can still play at an extremely high level at age 31 – as long as he's healthy. The future Hall of Famer has had at least 1,390 receiving yards in each of the past six seasons.
Assuming Jones is closer to 100 percent than he's been since Week 1, this will be a very tough task for Vikings rookie cornerbacks Cameron Dantzler and Jeff Gladney. Jones has an extremely rare combination of size (6'3", 220), speed (4.4), strength, and talent. He's an incredibly polished route-runner who can go up and make contested catches all over the field.
At 6'2", Dantzler has the length to match up well with Jones, but he's giving up around 30 to 35 pounds to the veteran. Last week, Dantlzer struggled at times with a similarly physically imposing receiver in Seattle's DK Metcalf. Gladney is the more physical of the two rookies but at 5'10" is giving up five inches of height to Jones.
"Been watching Julio for years," Gladney said. "A guy I always liked. But these types of games just in general are the types of games that you want. You got a nice competitor across from you and you just want to try to beat him."
The Vikings' corners also have to worry about Calvin Ridley, the breakout star who is fifth in the league with 485 receiving yards this year, despite having one game without a single catch. Ridley has gone over 100 yards in each of the other four games, including two multi-touchdown performances.
"He’s extremely fast, extremely quick out of the breaks," Mike Zimmer said of Ridley. "He’s sudden and catches the ball great, really can get out of the cuts, changes speeds at the beginning of the routes, at the top of the route. He’s a really good player."
How well the Vikings' rookies and slot corner Mike Hughes can slow down the Falcons' passing game will be a key matchup to watch in this game.
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