In the last few weeks, the Atlanta Falcons have become engulfed in the situation surrounding star wide receiver Julio Jones' decision to remain away from the team's offseason workouts. This has only drawn more attention with him choosing to stay that course through mandatory minicamp that has reasonably brought up questions about concerning his long-term future with the franchise.

These are now topics of discussion that his teammates are now being tossed their way to give their input on the situation. According to D. Orlando Ledbetter of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, several other Falcons players downplayed any concern with Jones' situation.

Center Alex Mack: “The biggest disruption is the questions that you guys ask. Everything else is business as usual.”

Linebacker Deon Jones: “The type of player that (Julio) is, we know that he's going to come in prepared and ready to go. We are just focusing on what we have here. When he gets here, it's going to be back to work like it never happened.”

Receiver Justin Hardy: “I'm just here to get better. I'm not really thinking about it. I know he's going to be doing whatever he can do to be good when he gets here.”

Receiver Mohammed Sanu: “We're just practicing like we are any other day, just coming out here doing our job, whether Julio's present or not, we just focus on what we have to do today to get better.”

This is clearly a matter that the Falcons do not possess any worry about it becoming a lingering issue. There is also no sort of disdain toward the 29-year-old due to it being something that is likely connected to his contract situation at this point.

Jones is heading into the third year of his five-year, $71.2 million deal that has roughly $39.2 million remaining. He is expected to make roughly over $14 million for the 2018 campaign; that salary makes him the eighth highest-paid player at his position. What has likely compounded the issue is that there have been several other players over the last few months who have received more lucrative annual salaries, such as Sammy Watkins, DaVante Adams, Mike Evans, and Jarvis Landry.

Atlanta has yet to voice any concern with Jones, who has repeatedly expressed that he is committed the franchise for the long haul. It may simply come down to the team giving him a slight bump up in his pay to make him feel more valuable to the franchise as one of the core star players.