ladies and gentlemen, your rookie of the year
(part one)


the actual facts of the matter:

3 series played
5 targets (including the first two offensive plays for the falcons)
2 receptions, 43 yards
1 rush, 12 yards

items of interest that i haven't been able to determine yet:

just how many julio jones, number 11 jerseys were in the georgia dome stands friday night?
how many season tickets were sold in 2011 versus 2010?
if the total number is greater in 2011, how many of those tickets are absolutely and directly related to julio playing three hours away from the university of alabama (we know of 4, to be sure!)?
has the atlanta falcons fanbase been this excited about any player since michael vick?
when all is said and done, who will have made the bigger impact on the field for the falcons, julio jones or michael vick?
will julio jones win offensive rookie of the year?
will the falcons win the super bowl?

these questions, and more, we'll track over the course of the newest series here on HACATLKAM.

i wasn't sure that julio would grace this site as much after his career at alabama was complete, but, if i wasn't sure before friday night, i am now.

julio is here to stay.

this much was true friday night, because you could feel it. people in atlanta are really freaking excited about julio.

atlanta falcons fans are a lazy bunch. hell, atlanta fans of anything are a lazy bunch, borderline apathetic. you can go to a braves game, any braves game (even playoff games) and the crowd doesn't start really paying close attention 'til the 7th inning. sure, they'll clap a little more loudly when chipper comes up to bat, but i can't imagine coming to the ted strikes fear in the heart of any visiting team. why would it? the level of heckling the other team is embarrassingly low. the crowd doesn't rise for anything other than the wave. the braves can't sell out a game that doesn't include the red sox or the cubs to save their life. it wouldn't surprise me if the general reaction of teams looking at their schedule to see their next stop is atlanta don't think to themselves, "i should call mom, get her to make this trip with us. they'll be really nice to us there. no swearing or fear-mongering or anything. and feed us chick-fil-a." going to see a braves game is family friendly, and that's not a bad thing. it just means that it's not a bad thing for the braves' opponents either. falcons games that i've attended are no different. and i've been to falcons games when michael vick was the starting quarterback. the dome would explode when he was introduced, raise to their feet anytime he left the pocket, yell and scream when he turned into "starship 7", but, for the rest of the game, you felt like you were watching the game on a super clear television with excellent surround sound. everyone sat in their seats. the fans didn't make any noise to help out the defense. again, the southern crowd was downright cordial, annoyingly so. the atmosphere was and is so different from, say, an alabama home game that it's unsettling.

last year, from what i saw on television, things changed for the better. expectations were raised. many in the sports media picked the falcons to compete with the saints for the division. compete, they did. win the division, they did. host a playoff game against the packers, they did. the process to all of those accomplishments led to a better product in the stands, which in turn had to have helped the product on the field. there was no real shame for the falcons to lose to the eventual super bowl champions. aaron rodgers was unstoppable. the falcons lacked the explosiveness in their offensive personnel and scheme to go toe-to-toe with green bay, and they bowed out of the 2010/11 campaign with their heads held high.

enter julio jones.

the story's been told and dissected and pundit-ized a million times since april. the falcons trade a boatload of picks to move up 21 spots in the draft to get julio.

enter explosiveness.

julio impresses every teammate that lays eyes upon him during off-season team-called workouts. "he's big." "he's fast." "he's got really soft hands." "he's a solid kid." "he's gonna make a great teammate."

enter hyperbole.

future hall of famer and current falcons tight end tweets that julio is the best incoming wide-receiver he's ever seen.

enter pressure.

preseason, game one. the falcons target julio on their first two plays of the their first offensive possession. the first play was a little stutter-go, where julio took off the line, danced in front of the corner to get the defender flat-footed and blew past him. julio was three yards behind the corner when matt ryan delivered the ball out of bounds. bad throw. the crowd went nuts. whether they were going nuts to say thank you to the falcons for last year or to say thank you to the team for going out and getting a new toy or to say thank you to julio for breathing new life into an already solid offense can't be known for sure, but you could feel the energy in the dome. something was new. something was different.

of course it was.

julio is special.

i've been on record many times with this sentiment, but i'll repeat myself to begin this series as well. julio is going to tear apart this league. for three years at alabama, he was THE guy other defenses schemed against. mark ingram won his heisman because of the threat julio posed. don't believe me? we'll see how trent fares this year without julio on the field to draw attention away from the running game. safeties constantly rolled their coverage to julio's side of the field. the patrick peterson's of the sec all were tasked with locking him down week after week after week. face it folks, corners aren't built much bigger and faster in the nfl than sec corners. julio's been there. he's done that.

now? now, julio has a pro bowl wide receiver on his team. with him. meaning what? meaning this. you can't double both julio and roddy white, and they aren't going to double the rookie.

julio is going to tear apart this league. and he is going to win the offensive rookie of the year.

the statistics that i listed at the top of this post tell nothing of the story that i'll write about julio this year. all those stats were an introduction. a way of saying "hey. how ya doing? you seem cool." to the guy that might be the missing piece in a championship puzzle.

each week, i'll track julio's stats, but, more importantly, i'll track his impact, something altogether different.

i'll end each submission with my own subjective ranking of that impact, 10 being "indestructible force of nature" (think randy moss catching deep balls from dante culpepper in his prime) to 1 being "decoy that isn't interested in being a decoy" (think randy moss as a raider).

it's just the preseason, and the preseason is all about getting ready for the real season, so don't read too much into the low first number. but, i think it's important to note that the 3 biggest cheers of the falcons' friday night game were cheered towards a lowly rookie wide receiver from the university of alabama.

impact: 6