THE CHEAP SEATS with STEVE CAMERON: Julio in Seattle? Seahawks interested in Jones, and Russ would appreciate another talented target

It’s taken a while.

Unusually long, in fact.

Sure enough, though, the Seahawks finally have emerged as one of the teams sniffing around Atlanta wide receiver Julio Jones.

One of the NFL’s most elite receivers over a 10-year career, Jones almost certainly will be traded — and soon.

The Falcons have been listening to offers as they begin a youth-oriented rebuilding program, and a deal for Jones now moves to the front burner with the calendar turning to June.

As of midnight Tuesday, teams are allowed to make all sorts of contract extensions, and use other types of financial devices to free up cap space.

For a team like the Seahawks, that would work on both ends of a potential trade for a high-level player like Jones.

First, Atlanta wouldn’t have moved Jones prior to June 1, because it would have been stuck with a dead money hit of $15.3 million.

On the Seattle end of things, the Seahawks are also short of cap space — but there is always the option of stretching out Russell Wilson’s rich deal, changing Bobby Wagner’s contract to a bonus (or both).

YOU HAVE to wonder why it took so long for Seattle to be dropped into conversations regarding Jones.

Maybe it’s because the Hawks already have a pair of star receivers in DK Metcalf and Tyler Lockett.

Plus, we know the Falcons are hunting for a first-round draft choice in a deal for Jones, and Seattle doesn’t have a first-rounder in 2022.

But then…

Last weekend, ESPN’s pro football reporter Dianna Russini broke the news that the Seahawks’ brass had been talking to the Falcons about Jones, and furthermore…

Wilson has been working out with Jones, and making a case with the Seattle hierarchy that adding a Hall of Fame receiver to the weapons already available would be very good business.

Russini has excellent contacts throughout the NFL, and she wouldn’t be headlining these two sets of conversations if it were all just offseason nonsense.

A lot of people around the league suspect that Atlanta will have trouble getting a first-round pick for Jones, given that he’s 32 now and is carrying a contract worth $38 million that runs through 2023.

If reporting from Atlanta is correct, the Falcons want a trade partner who will take on all of Jones’ $38 million salary — and is willing to make any draft choice valuation a “hard number.”

In other words, if a team like Seattle offered a second-round pick in 2022, it would be on the hook for that exchange no matter how often Jones might play.

No conditional deals.

HERE ARE a couple of issues that impact Seattle’s interest in Jones, who reeled off six straight seasons with at least 1,300 yards receiving — then played only nine games last year (hamstring injury), but still averaged 85.7 yards per game, which would have been seventh in the league over a full season.

There are predictable questions about Jones’ skill and durability levels, given that receivers rarely last much past 30 at the very top level.

Remember, though, the trade for Jamal Adams and a few other deals — plus the fact that Pete Carroll will be 70 in September — all scream out that the Seahawks are willing to take some risks in what is clearly a “win now” stance.

Does Carroll worry that much about a first-round pick two years from now?

I doubt it.

Speaking of draft picks, though, the feeling around the NFL is that Jones’ stock is low — not just because he’s 32, but because even the best receivers are not being paid top dollar, nor fetching major packages on the trade market.

SOME NFL execs think Seattle could land Jones for a second-round pick next year, and maybe a third in 2023 – with a lower-round pick coming the other way.

So…

I believe the Seahawks are tempted.

A little more offensive explosiveness could get them to the Super Bowl.

If Seattle ultimately says no to Jones, it will be because of money — Julio’s salary for three years, even when he’s lost even more speed and quickness, plus…

The added cap money they’d have to move out to those years just to make a trade.

A final issue concerns Seattle’s second-round pick this year, receiver Dee Eskridge.

Carroll said he absolutely loved Eskridge during OTAs.

Therefore…

Should we take Pete’s enthusiasm at face value — like, would it mean he’d pass on Julio Jones because he’s enthralled with Eskridge?

Hah!

No.

A thousand times no.

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Steve Cameron’s “Cheap Seats” columns appear in The Press on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. “Moments, Memories and Madness,” his reminiscences from several decades as a sports journalist, runs each Sunday.

Steve also writes Zags Tracker, a commentary on Gonzaga basketball which is published monthly during the offseason.