The Falcons are basically rebuilding their outside linebacker group from scratch, given that Jalon Walker was the only holdover from last year guaranteed to play this year. They have James Pearce Jr. with a cloudy future owing to his arrest and multiple charges and Bralen Trice returning from yet another injury, but it was clear they’d need to rebuild.
Former Brown Cameron Thomas is a bigger option who may play both standing up and with his hand in the dirt, and former Eagle and Giant Azeez Ojulari
signed to join the outside linebacker rotation. Now the Falcons have added yet another option, and he’s the most established one yet.
That would be Samson Ebukam, the former Colt, 49er, and Ram with 35 career sacks. Ebukam, who will be 31 this season, had a quiet season in 2025 but was returning from an Achilles injury that cost him the entire season. His last fully healthy year, in 2023, he put up 9.5 sacks for Indianapolis.
Chances are good the Falcons are getting someone who piles up, say, four or five sacks instead of close to ten. But if he’s healthy, Ebukam is a really solid player who has a proven track record as a quality pass rusher and who offers decent-to-good run defense. The age and the fairly recent major injury offer a level of concern, but on what’s likely to be an affordable pact and with the team adding other options that will allow them to rotate a player who hasn’t played over 500 snaps since 2023, I’m not overly worried. Ebukam should be an effective piece of this rebuilt rotation.
The Falcons can and should still do additional work with this group, but Walker gives them considerable upside and Ojulari, Thomas, and now Ebukam offer solid track records and rotational help for a group that doesn’t know whether it will have Pearce (probably not) or Trice (hopefully) in 2026. They’ve significantly raised the floor, and I’d expect Ebukam to be a contributor. Give him a warm welcome.
