When ESPN insider Jeremy Fowler dropped his camp notebook for the Falcons on Tuesday morning, he mentioned that the Falcons wanted to add a pass rusher. At the time, that was a reasonable thought given that James Pearce Jr. will likely face a suspension from the league. In the intervening hours, it has become an imperative, thanks to a torn ACL suffered by second-year would-be star Jalon Walker.
There now exists an all-too-familiar scenario in Atlanta: An unspectacular group of edge rushers being
tasked with being something much greater than the sum of their parts. Instead of a lack of talent or poor coaching, however, this one will turn on injuries and suspensions, because Walker is going to miss the season and Pearce is going to miss an undetermined number of games.
Today, the Falcons would be relying on veterans Samson Ebukam and Azeez Ojulari, both quality players who do not have a consistent track record of being high-end pass rushers. Ebukam put up a career-high 9.5 sacks in 2023 but missed 2024 with an injury and was working his way back in 14 games last year, so perhaps he can return to that 2023 form in a major role. However, that 9.5 sack season was a major outlier in his career. Ojulari has a career high of eight sacks in a single season, but did so all the way back in 2021; his single season high water mark since then is six sacks.
Beyond them, there’s Cameron Thomas, who I suspect has more upside as a pass rusher than we’ve seen but remains a better bet for a handful of sacks and quality run defense than anything else. Bralen Trice could be an impact player, but we have no idea what to expect after he missed both the 2024 and 2025 seasons with major injuries, and he profiled to be more of a complementary pass rusher and early down asset against the run before those injuries. Keshawn Banks lacks an NFL track record even if he did well in the UFL, and DeAngelo Malone just hit the reserve/PUP list yesterday.
That group is solid enough. I’m not disparaging the individual contributors because they are quality players, and the Falcons were smart to add proven veterans who can contribute significant snaps. Realistically, though, combined these guys would probably post one of the lowest sack totals of any edge group in the NFL over a full season.
Were they to stand pat, the Falcons would be leaning very heavily on schemed blitzes with their talented secondary and young inside linebacker group to try to paper over that weakness. The great Nate Ollie will be even more heavily counted on for his ability to get the team’s defensive line to pile up the sacks and deliver the pressures the EDGE group might not be able to manage. The good news is that with Brandon Dorlus, Zach Harrison, new addition Maason Smith, and other contributors, they should be able to do that. The bad news is that the Falcons are a substantially less talented defense without Walker, and between his ability to rush off the edge and the likelihood that he’d be employed creatively via blitzes, they’re losing a lot of pass rushing production and potential.
Pearce will be around at some point—and it may not even be that long—and he lifts both the floor and ceiling of the group substantially. But even after he returns, the team will lack a player who has a history of wreaking havoc on clear passing downs, and that remains a massive need.
But about that addition: We don’t know who it’s going to be, but it’s likely to be one of the bigger names (or multiple names) left on the market. We’ll get into the full list of who is out there soon enough, but names to keep an eye include Haason Reddick, Leonard Floyd, and Von Miller if the Falcons are serious about going after players with track records. I think they will be, and more than that, I think they have to be.
Quoth Fowler:
The Falcons are bracing for a James Pearce Jr. suspension stemming from his domestic violence arrest in February. It’s uncertain how many games he’ll receive, but how Atlanta handles the edge position will be worth watching. The Falcons have been looking for a potential pass-rush addition this offseason.
The Walker injury is an unbelievably bleak note for a team that has many fresh faces and has taken pain to lock up stars, but has also endured a 2026 defined by Pearce’s arrest and charges, uncertainty at quarterback and right tackle, and now a series of injuries and question marks. If they can’t maximize the group they have and make at least one impactful addition, we may be right back to the Falcons pass rush derailing grand dreams for this defense, a familiar but deeply depressing place to be.
