FLOWERY BRANCH Nick Bosa Jersey , Ga. (AP) — hat to the opening day of the Atlanta Falcons‘ three-day minicamp.As he prepares for his ninth season, Jones was in player-coach mode on Tuesday as he made mental notes to pass on to younger teammates.For the Falcons, the biggest news was the wide receiver reported, one year after he missed the mandatory minicamp.Last year he had the approval of coach Dan Quinn to work on his own. Jones has continued to set his own workout pace this offseason. He missed the voluntary organized team activities (OTAs) while making sure he is healthy for training camp.Jones, 30, called his schedule the “same thing” as last offseason.“I’m just taking it slow,” he said. “A little maintenance work. Just taking it slow for me. Not really trying to jump in and get in the swing of things right now. I’m a veteran. I’ve been doing it for a while.”Jones said he knows how “to get better and be where I need to be when the season comes around.”The difference from 2018 is Jones can be a better leader when he is in minicamp, if only as an observer.“He is the type of player who enjoys the mentor side of it and he takes that responsibility seriously to help the group and others, not just the wide receiver group,” Quinn said.Jones’ leadership role was an appropriate topic on the day his mentor, former Falcons wide receiver Roddy White, was announced as the 11th player to be inducted into the Falcons Ring of Honor. The ceremony has been planned for the Dec. 8 game against Carolina.White, who retired after the 2015 season, was a four-time Pro Bowl selection in his 11 years with the team and a first-team All-Pro in 2010. White’s franchise records for TD catches and yards receiving are being challenged by Jones.“Roddy mentored me,” Jones said. “… He didn’t shy away from helping me out. You’ve got to understand we want to win. You can’t win by hiding things from younger guys.”Despite frequent problems with injuries that force him to miss practice L.J. Collier Jersey , Jones has not missed a game the past two seasons. He was in top form in 2018 , when he had 113 catches and led the NFL with 1,677 yards receiving. He had eight touchdown catches.Jones has had at least 1,400 yards in five straight seasons. He was a first-team All-Pro pick in 2015 and 2016 and is a six-time Pro Bowl selection.Falcons owner Arthur Blank has said he wants Jones to play his entire career in Atlanta. There are ongoing talks about a new deal for Jones, who has two years remaining on his five-year, $71.5 million contract. His 2019 base salary under his current deal is $9.6 million, far below contracts given to other top wide receivers.NOTES: DT Grady Jarrett, OLB Vic Beasley Jr. and LB Deion Jones also did not participate in OTAs. Each reported Tuesday. Jarrett has signed his $15.209 million franchise tag and he wouldn’t comment on chances he will remain in Atlanta after the 2019 season. The Falcons have until July 15 to sign Jarrett to a long-term deal. … Quinn said that all players still recovering from injuries or, like Jones, held out on Tuesday as a precaution, are expected to be ready for training camp. As NFL training camps opened this week, complete with interminable speculation about position battles, rookies who might make an impact and what players can or can’t do while ”The Star-Spangled Banner” is playing, let’s remember two players who aren’t suiting up.Colin Kaepernick and Eric Reid are good enough to be playing for someone.That much is beyond debate.But the league has decided to make an example of them, a clear warning to its employees that only so much social activism will be tolerated even while it feigns a sense of respecting their desire to protest during the national anthem.If the NFL were really concerned about its players Marquise Blair Jersey , it wouldn’t be denying these two their well-earned right to make a living.Rest assured, history won’t be kind when it looks back on the way Kaepernick and Reid were treated by the NFL.”Both of those guys are NFL talents. Both of them are quality players that can contribute to a roster and contribute to a team winning. They’ve proven it,” New Orleans Saints tight end Benjamin Watson said. ”I do think that 100 percent of the reason why they’re not on a roster is the other stuff that they’re standing for is outweighing the risk a team wants to take to put them on a roster.”Kaepernick and Reid are following the same path as social warriors who came before them.Muhammad Ali, who was stripped of his heavyweight boxing title and barred from the ring for more than three years after he refused induction into the military during the Vietnam War.Tommie Smith and John Carlos, who defiantly stood with their fists in the air on the medal podium at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics to protest the way black people were – and still are – being treated in America.Ali, Smith and Carlos were vilified at the time.Now, they’re viewed at heroes – but only after making huge personal, professional and financial sacrifices to stand up for what they believed.Kaepernick and Reid are making those same sacrifices.”I do think it’s sad and I want those guys to be on teams because I know they’re good enough to play,” Watson said. ”I hate to see them not be employed in the National Football League, where they should be, simply because they decided to protest and bring attention to systemic oppression, police brutality, injustice – all the things they stated over and over again, which I think are things that we all should be concerned about.”As of Friday, Kaepernick has gone 572 days since his last snap in the NFL. Tellingly enough D.K. Metcalf Jersey , he turned in one of his better performances in what might go down as his final game.On New Year’s Day 2017, playing behind a leaky offensive line that left him running for his life (he was sacked five times), Kaepernick completed 17 of 22 passes for 215 yards and a touchdown in San Francisco’s 25-23 loss to Seattle. His 122.3 rating was the seventh highest of his 69 career games.But the NFL would have you believe he’s not good enough to play in a league that will employ just under 100 quarterbacks this season, many of them older than Kaepernick (who is still more than three months shy of his 31st birthday, presumably just entering what should be his prime years) and lacking a resume that includes leading his team to the Super Bowl.Of course, we all know the real reason Kaepernick has effectively been blacklisted from the league – his decision to first sit, then kneel during the national anthem throughout the 2016 season, sparking a debate that carried all the way to the White House.Reid bravely joined Kaepernick in his stoic, symbolic gesture, and carried on the kneeling when his former teammate was sidelined for the entire 2016 season.For that, he’s now paying the price.Despite being beyond qualified for a spot in the NFL – 26 years old, a former first-round pick, a starter in 69 of 70 games over five years with the 49ers, 10 career interceptions, an average of 65 tackles per season Cody Barton Jersey , a Pro Bowler in 2013 – Reid has been deemed unworthy of employment by each and every one of the league’s 32 teams.What makes the treatment of Kaepernick and Reid even more perplexing: The owners and their non-blacklisted players continue to be locked in a back-and-forth squabble over whether protesting during the anthem is a legitimate way to address social injustice in this country.(Spoiler alert: It is.)The issue remains a thorn in the league’s side, even after Kaepernick and Reid were cast aside.”Nothing lasts forever, and this is coming close to lasting way too long,” Cincinnati Bengals owner Mike Brown groaned.Before there’s any more discussion about sitting or kneeling or staying in the locker room, the players – all of them, black and white – should demand justice for Kaepernick and Reid.While both have filed collusion grievances, the NFL has lots of highly paid lawyers who will surely try to drag this thing out as long as possible, soaking up prime seasons they’ll never get back.But all those players who are lucky enough to have a job, some of whom were just as visible and vocal in their calls for social justice, should be pondering what they can do to help get Kaepernick and Reid back on the field.Maybe a one-day sickout during training camp. Or kneeling en masse before the first game. Perhaps, as a last resort, they should consider an actual strike.Like Kaepernick and Reid, they need to be willing to make some huge sacrifices.After all, they could be next.—Paul Newberry is a sports columnist for The Associated Press. Write to him at pnewberry(at)ap.org or at www.twitter.com/pnewberry1963 His work can be found at https://apnews.com/search/paul newberry—AP Sports Writers Brett Martel in New Orleans and Joe Kay in Cincinnati contributed to this report.—