The Atlanta Falcons went into the draft with many needs for their team as they continue to build around their young offensive core. They held the 15th overall pick originally after finishing the 2024 season with an 8-9 record in a Competitive NFC Conference. There was clear need to bolster their defensive line in the 2025 draft with them having serious trouble pressuring the Quarterback. Thankfully for them this year’s draft class had a lot of great contenders for them to choose from all the up at 15, which led many to be excited for the Falcons future after the whole Kirk Cousins failed experiment. With a full off season dedicated to Penix jr. and upgrading that D-line this team could really be scary in the 2025-26 season.
Falcons Select LB Jalon Walker
With their first round pick the Falcons were able to get Linebacker Jalon Walker out of Georgia, which in my opinion is an amazing pick for this Falcons team. Linebacker was very clearly an issue for them in 2024 with their best player at that position being Kaden Elliss who ranked 25th in the league per PFF. That isn’t terrible, but outside of his pass rush stats he isn’t a special player by any means, especially when you consider his best years are behind him as he pushes 30 years old. Walker will bring a strong prescenese to this team’s defense against the pass and the run. He won the Dick Butkus Award for being the best linebacker in college last year, which he got by recording 37 Solo Tackles, 6.5 Sacks, 11 TFLs, and 2 Passes Deflected in his 14 games with Georgia. He has an insanely fast burst when coming off the line, which makes up for him being slightly undersized for the position. In the run game he will be a problem for opposing offenses who will have to find a way to stop this quick, smart linebacker who can come off the edge as well as be off-ball. This is an easy A grade for the Falcons who took the perfect player at 15 to me.
Falcons Trade Their 2026 First Round Pick
This is where the draft night and future of the Atlanta Flacons started to crumble. They decided to trade into to have another pick in the first round, which isn’t a bad idea at all considering there were still many key defensive pieces on the board at the time. They traded up to the Ram’s 26th overall pick to pick James Pearce out of Tennessee who I will touch upon a soon, but the issue is they gave up their 2026 first round pick. The problem everyone is having with Atlanta s not a single piece away from being champions, which means they shouldn’t be making win-now moves like this in the draft. They have a great young core with Drake London, Penix Jr., Kyle Pitts, Bijan Robinson, etc but this team is still a couple of years away from truly contending for a Superbowl against team like the Eagles and Chiefs. Giving away a key first round pick for a late first round pick is just straight up terrible for their rebuild, which to this point had been going so smoothly. Not only that but they also gave up their second-rounder, which is going to put a lot of pressure on Pearce to perform this upcoming season or the team will be set back a couple of years without any major draft capital.
Falcons Take EDGE James Pearce Jr. at Pick 26
Ignoring what Atlanta did to pick him, James Pearce Jr. was a good player for Tennessee recording 7.5 sacks, 13 TFL’s, 23 Solo Tackles, and a forced fumble in his 13 games played last season. He has an NFL level takeoff and is a heat seeking missal when it comes to getting to the quartback, but the lack of size and tehcnique causes him to miss tackles more than you’d like. He has the raw skill and intuition that makes up a great edge rusher in this league, Pearce just needs the right development around him to produce and make him worth this selection. It’s definitely an interesting scenario for the Falcons to be in with them picking such a raw prospect after giving up two very important picks as a part of their rebuild. I could see James Pearce Jr. being the cornerstone of this defense along side Walker, but I can also see this being what we’ll look back on as Atlanta’s biggest mistake. With the stakes this pick holds along with the Pearce’s talent I’d give this pick a C-.
