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Julio Jones can run the gauntlet with Super Bowl win

Brett Davis / USA TODAY Sports

Julio Jones has been a celebrity in some parts of America since his junior year of high school, prophesied for superstardom before college coaches could make a formal offer. Two days after his 28th birthday, Jones is provided with an opportunity to run the career gauntlet at Super Bowl LI, in trying to capture one of the lone awards that's eluded him through his career.

Emerging as ESPN's top-ranked offensive player in the 2008 class, Jones became the most important recruit of Nick Saban's career, turning Alabama from a run-of-the-mill SEC team to the greatest dynasty in college football history. Jones made an imprint on the Crimson Tide from his very first practice, becoming the first true freshman to start at wide receiver in Alabama's history, leading the team with 58 catches for 924 yards and four touchdowns, winning SEC Freshman of the Year.

"He changed the way everybody on the team felt about Alabama football,” former Alabama quarterback John Parker Wilson said to The Ringer's Robert Mays in a June 2016 profile. "He's the No. 1 recruit in the nation, and he comes and works harder than everybody else. Now we've got senior guys looking at this true freshman, 18 years old, and thinking, ‘Damn, I better get my shit together quick.'"

Jones followed up his prodigious freshman season by helping Alabama to the first of four national championships under Saban's tenure, then submitted a dominant 2010 campaign, and was a first-team All-SEC choice. The 27-year-old delivered on his immeasurable hype and elected to declare for the draft, altering the trajectories of two NFL franchises in the process.

Prior to the 2011 NFL Draft, Jones was regarded as a top-10 prospect and the Falcons felt the audacious opportunity cost was well worth it. Atlanta engineered one of the boldest draft day trades of all-time, trading five picks to the Cleveland Browns - including two first-rounders - in order to move up 21 spots to select Jones sixth overall. None of the Browns' selections panned out, while Jones developed into arguably the NFL's premier wide receiver.

Jones was named to the Pro Bowl during his second season and hasn't looked back since, becoming the most difficult wide receiver to contain with a single defender. The two-time All-Pro can accelerate away from most cornerbacks, or can run through them, and possesses the best stiff arm out of any receiver in the league. At 6-foot-3, 220 pounds, Jones is a physical nightmare that runs the entire route tree to perfection and is in line to become the most decorated receiver of his generation if the Falcons emerge with a Super Bowl victory.

Jones has won at every level while racking up numerous individual accolades along the way and could run the career gauntlet just after his 28th birthday. Presented with an opportunity to win the first Super Bowl of his career, Jones will have a complete resume six years into his professional stint.

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