Julio Jones contradicts Chris Ballard by saying Colts were interested in him
After signing with the Buccaneers, Julio Jones reveals the Indianapolis Colts were interested in him, though, Chris Ballard denied they were.
On Tuesday, when the Indianapolis Colts reported for camp, general manager, Chris Ballard, stopped to speak with the media. In typical Chris Ballard fashion, he didn’t back down from any questions. One topic that came up was Indy’s interest in free agent receivers, specifically, Julio Jones and TY Hilton.
Ballad admitted that Indy was still in the mix for Hilton but made a strong statement that the team had no interest in Julio Jones and never even had internal discussions about him. He went on to say that any reports saying the Colts were talking to Jones were simply wrong.
A few hours after that press conference, it was announced that Julio Jones would be signing with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Julio had his plans and the Colts had theirs. End of story, right? Wrong. After arriving in Tampa Bay on Wednesday morning, Jones spoke with the media and revealed the teams that reached out to him with interest.
The Pat McAfee Show replayed the clip, and in it, Jones says that the Buccaneers, New Orleans Saints, Green Bay Packers, and Colts were the top teams in the conversation. Ultimately, Julio chose Tampa Bay because he felt they give him the best chance to win a Super Bowl.
However, the story here is that Jones claims Indianapolis was interested although Ballard said that they weren’t?
Julio Jones chatted about the teams there were interested in him & why he chose the Bucs#PMSLive #GoBucs pic.twitter.com/PPRuy0THEQ
— Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) July 27, 2022
Were the Colts actually interested in Julio Jones?
How could this be? Is it possible that Ballard learned Indy was out of the race so he tried to downplay the team’s interest? Or could Julio Jones just have been making it seem like he was more coveted than he was? Honestly, neither man has reason to lie and they haven’t done anything throughout their careers for us to question their words.
The most reasonable explanation is some type of miscommunication. An NFL franchise is made up of a lot of people, so just because Ballard and his team of top decision-makers didn’t discuss Julio Jones, it doesn’t mean that someone from Indy didn’t reach out. For all we know, it could’ve been Jones’ former teammate, Matt Ryan, or other Colts players that reached out to Julio and tried to sell him on the idea of playing in Indianapolis.
If that happened, Jones could’ve mistaken it as organizational interest instead of just a player doing some recruiting. This is all just speculation trying to make sense of some contradicting information. Who knows what really happened.
At the end of the day, Julio Jones is now with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Colts are doing their own thing. While stories may not be adding up, it ultimately doesn’t matter.
