Julio Jones finds fountain of youth with go-ahead TD catch in Eagles’ win over Commanders

LANDOVER, Md. — A.J. Brown saw a group of reporters at his locker and smiled. The man who set the NFL record with the most consecutive games with 125-plus receiving yards knew who they were waiting for.

Brown made sure Julio Jones knew, too.

Jones appeared surprised they were waiting after most of the locker room cleared out and took a businesslike approach as he put his throwback Philadelphia Eagles hat on. All Jones did was catch the go-ahead touchdown in the fourth quarter that gave the Philadelphia Eagles a 38-31 comeback victory over the Washington Commanders, throwing it back to when the future Hall of Fame receiver was making plays like that on the regular in his prime.

“It’s football. I mean, I’ve been playing it for a long time, right?” Jones said. “They know I can make plays. My number was called, I needed to be clutch and do my job. Regardless of the score, there was an opportunity for me and I needed to take advantage of it.”

The Eagles practiced the play all week where Jones made the go-ahead touchdown catch to give the Eagles a 31-24 lead with 7:17 left. Jones was the primary receiver on the play, just two weeks after arriving in Philadelphia as a much-needed elder statesman in a locker room with a lot of young, but productive wide receivers.

Jason Kelce thought Jones was smacked in the head when he made the catch, knowing the ball was coming to him. Once Jones caught the touchdown, the leaders on the Eagles were fired up for the 34-year-old wideout showing he still can make those catches at a high level.

“I mean … he got smacked,” Kelce said. “Regardless he held on to it. Didn’t phase him. It was just a great play. We were all excited to see if it was gonna work out for him.”

“He’s supposed to hit me, it’s football,” Jones said. “I don’t blink. I’ve been doing it for a long time, so it’s not like I freak out when somebody’s gonna hit me on the head. My job is to focus on the football and catch it.”

Lane Johnson sprinted to the end zone to celebrate with Jones once the touchdown was made, knowing how hard Jones worked to get to that point.

“I’m still just a huge fan,” Johnson said. “Any time you get a Hall of Fame-caliber player like that, I mean, he’s on the last part of his career and still making plays. I was super hyped for him, seeing how hard he works. He did what Julio Jones does.”

Jones is the No. 3 wideout on the Eagles behind Brown and DeVonta Smith, yet his presence in the locker room is clearly felt. On a team with plenty of leaders and Super Bowl champions over 30, Jones is also a role model for the younger stars who grew up watching him dominate.

Sunday’s catch was reminiscent of when Jones was in his prime, so seeing him find the fountain of youth was extra special.

“He made a big-time play in a big-time moment,” Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts said. “He’s been in those moments a lot of times in his career. It was cool to see. Cool to see, cool to do. Cool to see him making a play for you.

“Out of all my years I never thought I’d say I’d be throwing touchdown passes to Julio Jones, but here it is.”