Atlanta Falcons Trade FUTURE for NOW | Can Pearce and Walker SAVE the Defense?

Atlanta Falcons Trade FUTURE for NOW | Can Pearce and Walker SAVE the Defense?

The Falcons made a big bold trade in round one of the 2025 NFL draft and not everybody is convinced it’s going to work out in their favor. You are Locked on Falcons, your daily Atlanta Falcons podcast, part of the Locked On network, your team every day. Welcome back everyone to another illustrious episode of the Locked On Falcons podcast. Your daily Atlanta Falcons podcast, part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day. And if you don’t know me, I’m your very humble host, Aaron Freeman, aka Mr. Drew, aka the Jolly Green Giant, aka Mr. Aka, and I’ve been covering the Atlanta Falcons for a very long time, formerly at falfans.com. RIP almost 20 years covering this team podcasting for over a decade and of course I appreciate each and every one of you that go strong with me whether you were checking out falfance.com rip whether you’ve been here the entire time with the podcast but we appreciate you whether you were always been an everydayer or just became an everydayer that means you make this podcast your first listen each and every day and all you have to do to become an everydayer guys is subscribe or follow for free on YouTube or wherever you listen to podcast and get the latest episode as soon as it is available. So today’s episode we are joined by Charles McDonald of Yahoo Sports, a Falcons fan covers the NFL. It’s been very vocal and critical of the Falcons decision to trade up giving away their future first round pick to move up for James Pierce and he’ll explain why on today’s episode. So without further ado, let’s jump into that conversation with Charles McDonald of Yahoo Sports right now. Welcome back everyone to another illustrious episode of Lockown Falcons podcast with an ustrious guest. He is none other than Charles McDonald who covers the NFL for Yahoo Sports. And you can find him as one half of the Football 301 podcast with Nate Ty on all podcast platforms. Charles, my friend, welcome home because this is where you got your start. I I will always every time you come on this podcast, I will 100% take all the credit for all your success. Uh going back to those Vic Beasley uh Shane Ray debates way back in the day a decade ago. I wish it was uh my finish after what Terry did last week, but uh hey, like I said before the show started, I’m having a better week than Jeff is, so I can’t complain too much. There you go. There you go. So, uh Charles, did you do the thing that we all do where you sit there and you’re critical, you know, the the the week before the draft or the night of the draft and then you marinate on it and you go like, you know what, I actually think the Falcons have thought about a little bit more the Falcons, you know, actually made some smart moves. or are you still not you feeling some type of way about the fog draft? I feel like the exact same way that I did last week where um it was like it was it was weird watching it because I’m I was we were we had our like our live show for football 301 last week and I was so ready to react when the Falcons were on the board at 15 and then I picked Jaylen Walker. I’m like ah whatever. I mean that’s fine range. Thought he’s a good enough player. they need pass rush help. They need front seven help. So I was like whatever that’s fine. I I was like really ready to be upset and then it was fine. And then you know as the draft goes on like you’re sitting up there for like four hours with no commercial break. So I was like I started to zone off zone out a little bit. And then I see that they’re back on the board and I was like whatever because I I knew that I knew going in they they they liked James Pierce, they like Jayen Walker. They liked Mike Green within reason although they were obviously a little concerned about the character stuff. So when they traded back up to 26, I was like, “Okay, like this must be James Pierce or or or Mike Green.” And then I saw the compensation cuz honestly, honestly, at 26, I didn’t really have a problem with like James Pierce going there. Like the idea he’s a 26 pick in draft is not that offensive to me, but like trading a future first, like how good how good do they think they’re going to be this year? Um Right. Right. And to me, that’s where that’s where the delusion starts because to me, in no certain terms, like are they are they good enough to be giving up like a future first round pick? Um because I get I get concerned with this defense when I’m like, “All right, you drafted Jaylen Walker and James Pierce. Obviously, you need a pass shelf. We’ve been saying that for what 15 15 something years that they need they need pass shelf.” Um, but they overpaid by a lot to me. And now I’m I’m worried like because to me like this season it could go well, but there it’s not certain that it will go well. Um, Michael Pennix, I think you should give him runway to struggle this year. Uh, he’s only played three games. This is we all know how tough playing quarterback is. So, like the idea that he could you like he could have an up and down season that you feel good about, but if you end up like seven and 10, which to me is like it’s on the table, then you you trade a lot for for for a pass rusher. So, I actually I don’t mind the players that they came away with. I I I reasonably liked all four players that they drafted, you know, that they spent like real picks on this weekend, but man, to to trade that future first is is really really pushing to me unless they think they’re going to be like Super Bowl contenders this year, which is also absolutely insane. Okay. Well, let’s get into your expectations for this team because the selling point that the Falcons are giving is that they expect their offense to to be, you know, one of the better offenses in the league and they feel like these additions on defense will at least get their defense to competency. And I’ve sort of termed it as like it’s kind of the 2023 Rams blueprint where you had that, you know, top 10 offense with Stafford and all those guys running it and then you had a very young defense. Um, you know, minus Aaron Donald and a couple other veteran pieces. Uh, and Raheem Morris was able to sort of piece that together. You know, are are you buying what this team is seemingly selling in that regard? I don’t know if I’m buying anything they’re selling right now. Okay. Like when I when I 20 plus years. Yeah. Yeah. It’s fair not to buy anything that they’re doing. When I look at this team right now, I see kind of like a worse version of the the 2012 like the the 20 like 2008 through 2012 teams is kind of what I see because I don’t I don’t uh first of all I I can’t put Matt Ryan expectations upon Michael Penn. I got to see more. you know, it it I thought his three games like they weren’t bad. They weren’t great. He looked like he did at Washington where he saw a lot of highs, some lows, some inaccuracies, some absolutely insane throws. So, we’re just going to have to see more on that. But the defense, man, I I I I get scared because they’ve they’ve built this thing like outside in. So you have you you paid for Jesse Bates, you extended AJ Terrell, you draft James Pierce, Jaylen Walker, you you know spend a couple picks on on like Nickelbacks and guys like that, but where is the beef? Like where’s like where is the interior play that is going to allow Jaylen Walker and James Pierce to be the best versions of themselves? Um, that’s that’s really where I get concerned with this defense because sure, I I do think there’s a world where, you know, a few years down the line, you’re looking at James Pierce and Jaylen Walker as like in their own ways, like credible pass rush pieces. I think they do it in different ways, but until you get there, they’re really vulnerable on on defense. And uh I I just think the spine is so weak that when you look at like how Carolina ran the ball last year, you know, Tampa Bay has one of the best offensive lines in the week. the Saints just draft another guy. They have Alvin Kamar. So, you know that that’s always a tough physical outing. Um I don’t I I don’t think they’ve set themselves up for for those well for those games and there’s a lot of pressure on Pennix and those two rookies they just drafted to really hit the ground running. Um I and I I also just don’t like the idea of, you know, if I’m if I’m a GM, if I’m Terry Fondo, hell yeah. Like this could be the last season I’m doing this. Like we we have to go all in. But as someone who is not going to get fired from Falcons fandom at the end of the year, I would like to have that first round pick back for next year. And also, I I think they need to protect themselves. I’m not saying that this is going to happen, but I think they need to protect themselves in the event that like this year goes really wrong for Panics. Like everything goes bad. He stinks. Um I don’t think that’s going to happen, but like anything could happen in the NFL. And if you end up giving like a top 10 pick to the Rams next year, you’re going to look pretty stupid. So, I just I just thought they paid too much. They just weren’t ready to make that leap. Fair enough. Fair enough. We’ll see if it comes back to to bite them. Um, but you you mentioned sort of the weaknesses up front uh on the defensive side of the ball due to the loss of Grady Jarrett. And I want to dig a little deeper. You know, they lost a cornerstone player in Grady Jarrett. uh and do you feel like any of these uh defensive players are cornerstone players? And we’ll get into all of that guys as we continue today’s locked on violence. So scaling your business requires the right expertise at the right time. And with Upwork, you can find specialized freelancers in marketing, development, design, and more experts ready to help you take your business to the next level. Upwork gives businesses flexibility by connecting them with the top freelance talent across multiple industries including IT, AI, web development, and marketing. Whatever you need, they got it. Whether you need extra hands for a project or a long-term partner, Upwork makes hiring simple and affordable. Posting a job is free and simple and within a day with multiple qualified candidates to choose from. Visit upwork.com right now and post your job for free. That’s upw.com upwork.com to connect with top talent and grow your business today. So, here with Charles McDonald of Yahoo Sports talking about the Falcons 2025 draft class. And you know, you lose a big time cornerstone piece of Grady Jarrett uh over the last decade has been sort of one of the faces of your defense uh these last several years. You know, you you kind of mentioned it. Do you feel do you feel good about any of these players from this Falcons draft class? You know, obviously they have a long ways to go before they can fill the the the hefty shoes of of Grady Jarrett, but do you feel like, you know, three, five or more years down the road, we might be talking about some of these uh 2025 draft picks in the same way? Um, I really do think there’s a universe where um I don’t know like I I don’t know if like individually if Jaylen Walker or James Pierce will be like, you know, great elite pass rushers, but I think like the two of them combined that could be a productive duo for you for a while given like you give them the right ecosystem. So I like I I really do like the potential on those guys. I I like the range on James Pierce was kind of all over the place because um he he kind of has a weird like physical profile where you see the 44 speed. You look at the jumps and you know he barely passed over 30 inches on the vertical jump which I think shows through in his game a little bit but they didn’t have anyone who could beat off threat off the edge like that. And I think um the Jaylen Walker stuff is the Jaylen Walker pick is it’s culture as much as it is trying to get tougher in the front seven. Like I do think just from talking to people at Georgia and following his career over the past few years, like you could you you you could make a case that like maybe this is like the leadership void they’re trying to fill with Grady moving on. Um I I I guess those guys would probably be like the two best guesses for guys who could be long-term fixes like that. Um and uh I do like the Xavier Wad Pitts. I do like Billy Bowman as a player. I think for for uh the all juice team that Charles Robinson and I do for uh Yahoo, Billy Bowman was uh uh was an all juice team member. He had a lot of fans in the NFL, a lot of fans in the scouting community. So I I do think that there’s a chance that like the like this is not a bad hall of players. I I really don’t think it’s a bad hall of players. It’s just what you pay to get for it. Um, so if I if I was going to go back to the original question of like who could be Greater Jared type Star Wars, I think your best bet are the two guys drafted in the first round. Um, I really think if I I I still kind of am even as someone who like Jaylen Walker, I’m still am really fascinated to see where they see him fitting like when it comes to actually, you know, play the games cuz it it was kind of like upside but master of none type of player as a front seven linebacker guy. So, I’m really interested to see how the goes, but if you look at just athletic traits and like potential, both those guys have potential to be long-term starters. It’s just how do we how do we maximize what they’re both really good at uh moving forward. Yeah. And and on that note of Jaylen Walker, he’s a player that I I do feel like his usage is going to matter a lot in the NFL because he’s not just a guy that you can just be like, “Oh, you can just drop him in in a defensive scheme and he’ll figure it out.” um sort of what do you sort of envision if if you’re if Jeff gives you a call you know asking for you know some money to pay back this fine and also um you know wants some advice on how you would sort of scheme up Jaylen Walker. What would you do? Um after the buy last year I thought they did a really good job in how they schemed up Kaden Ellis. I think you can do some similar things without being so reliant on like interior rush with Kaden. I think you you can obviously put Jaylen outside a little bit more, but um kind of like that that chess piece player that they turned Ellis to, especially like the the Vikings game is the one that comes to mind where he did such a good job blitzing and and and pass rushing from the interior. That’s kind of the role I see him ear early on, but it’s also um it also seems a little bit clogged with Kaden Ellis there, but I I can’t imagine Ken Ellis is going to be on the team like that much longer past this year. So maybe that’s like their long-term replacement there. But I do think like how you deploy Kaden Ellis with a little bit more edge reps is probably the best way to go about Jaylen Walker uh early on. Now, like the way I look at Falcons defense, like if you can get the third down, if you can get the third down, it’s not it’s not the worst setup that they’ve had because you’re going to have two guys with pass rush promise, which look, I know we’ve heard it before a million times. I know we’ve heard it before. It doesn’t actually mean anything until you see it on the field, but you have you have two guys with pass potential. Uh you know, Epicetti is your third guy. if those guys take those those necessary steps is not the worst group of edge players in the league. It’s not the best, but it’s not the worst. Um, and then you have like a really opportunistic secondary trying to make plays off of it, which is kind of why it reminds me of like the the 2010 defenses where it’s like, h, we’re not good down and down. And I don’t expect this defense to be good down and down. But you have just enough players on the back end, you know, between Jaylen Walker and James Pierce up front. You know, Jesse Bates and AJ Terrell are going to do their thing. Xavier Watts is another ball hawk. Billy Bowman’s a guy that likes to make plays. I would be really wary of double moves against this Falcons defense because there there are a bunch of guys that like to play downhill and make plays in the secondary, but I think that’s going to be necessary for where they are like in the spine of their front seven, which is still very much a work in progress. Like this this this Dline in the room scares the out of me. like like I see you know Tristan Worse and Gran Barton where the Panthers off at the line like that’s kind of tough but if they can get into like those favorable situations they have a chance to make some plays with the speed they have and the playmaking build they have on the back end. Yeah, I I’ve compared a little bit to the the vision is like the 2012 defense which wasn’t great at anything. You know, they had they still had John Abraham, but like it was a lot of just like Asante Samuel jumping throws, getting picks, Thomas Deu not dropping the three interceptions that he would always drop every single season and having like a career-high uh interceptions and like Willie Mo doing his thing of getting these deflections off of, you know, tip passes over the middle and whatnot. And sort of like that’s kind of the model that I think the Falcons defensively like it wasn’t a good defense. You saw it in the NFC Championship game once the 49ers woke up from their slump after the first quarter and were like, “Oh, we can just push this defense around all all game long.” And then they did that for three quarters. But like it was a defense that could take advantage of of some of the opportunities particularly with the offense playing at such a high level. And so I think that’s the goal. as you say, we’ll see if the Falcons live up because this not the first time we’ve been like, “Oh yeah, the Falcons got this great blueprint for success, but uh you know, we’ll see if they actually, you know, live up to that uh this year.” Look, any anyone who’s been watching this team knows you can’t just bank on a first round pass rusher beating anything. You you Jaylen and James, I’m sorry, but you guys are going to have to do it to get the love. We’ve seen Jamal Anderson, we’ve seen Vic Beasley, we’ve seen Tack McKinley, you guys are just going to have to do it. So, we’ll see. I I I I really don’t, like I said before, and I’ve said it a million times, I do not hate this hall of players. I just hate what they paid for it. Like, even trading up for Xavier Watts, man, you really weren’t sure he was going to be on the pick the board of like five more picks. And if he was, you couldn’t have taken just Billy Bowman there and figured out something in the fourth round. I don’t know. It It became expensive, which to me suggests Terry is on the hot seat. And every time there’s a gym on the hot seat, they start spending. And we’ll just have to see what happens. I hope that they have a pass rush this year. I hope that they can score enough points to allow a pass rush to develop this year, but it’s a little iffy. We got a lot of young players we’re counting on and now we don’t have a young player in 2026 at the top of the first round maybe. Yeah, you know, I’m I’m with you on that. like having five picks again next year is not usually a recipe for success. But obviously as as you say and and many others have said if they win games this year like you know you’ll be fine. Like yeah you’re not going to lose any sleep over you know that if if they’re coming off a playoff season. But if Yeah. If they’re trading the 21st pick of the draft, I’ll I can I can stomach that. If they’re trading the 11th pick, I don’t know. I don’t know. Yeah. I don’t know. So, make the playoffs. Yes. Please, please, please. So, ladies and gentlemen, do not change that. Do I said don’t change it. If you hit skip forward 30 seconds, I will come for you, okay? Because I know you’re eager to see what’s more with Charles McDonald here on the podcast. Just wait, right? We’ll get there, right? We’ll get Charles’s thoughts on the Falcons allin mentality and offseason strategy whether or not it’s going to pay off with a playoff birth coming up on today’s locked on Falcons. Uh so Charles, anything else that stood out to you about this draft or anything the Falcons have done this off seasonason since it’s been a good little bit since we talked to you? Um, I do think it’s kind of interesting from like a philosophy standpoint. Like if they’re kind of looking at it from the standpoint like it’s going to get tough for us to get more stout, maybe we can just become this defense that just throws haymakers and we’re playing fullon bend don’t break football. Um, I I I actually do think like that portion of the self scouting is kind of astute because this year it might have been easier to find pass rushers and then like healthy defensive tackles in the draft. Um, I I I I just kind of like like you remember how it felt when the Dan Quinn era was kind of coming to a close and you realize every week the Falcons had like the smallest front seven in football where you have Vic Beasley and Tiger Kinley and Dion Jones and you are just getting pile drive off the line of scrimmage every year. That’s that’s just where I get um kind of concerned. And it it’s just if this is the draft, if this is the offseason to save your job, I don’t know if they did a great job. But given with what they were working with, not a whole lot of cap space, not a lot of picks because of what they did last year, just got to stomach it and just hope that one of these guys can be a like if one of these guys can just accidentally get 10 sacks this year, you probably feel pretty good. You know, we’ll analyze all the sacks later, but someone’s got to get someone’s got to get close to 10 this year. Someone has to. And I I’ll take I’ll take like a 44 to 13 wild card loss. But please just get there because if I hear, you know, with the third overall pick in the 2026 NFL draft, Los Angeles Rams have made a trade to pick Arch Manning. No, I’m gonna lose my mind. So, please, please just make make the playoffs. That’s all I’m asking. Make the playoffs. Michael Pennix. Let’s have some highlights. I I can’t expect much from this team anymore, but I think like one playoff year, dude, we haven’t made the playoffs since like Obama White House is transitioning, you know? Come on now. It’s been a long time. The worst thing that you can be is like being next to the Jets on those those diagrams that says, you know, the worst professional playoff routes. They’re there. So, make it playoffs this year, please. Please. Yeah, I agree with you. I agree with you on that one. So, Charles, I always appreciate you coming on, sharing your insights. Always unique uh and insightful. Uh let the people know where those unique insights can come elsewhere. Uh and some of the stuff that you’re working on this summer. Oh man. Uh hopefully not working on much this summer. Um but you can find us at Yahoo Sports, Yasports NFL, Football 301 podcast. We’re doing crossovers with the fantasy forecast podcast. I mean, really, really anywhere. If you’re out in New York, uh come uh come hang out with me and Bmani and Jo on Friday at uh uh what’s it called? Mike’s Flying High somewhere in Brooklyn. It’s a restaurant. I don’t know. But we’ll be out there all night. Go check it out, guys. Appreciate you, Charles, man. Uh always a pleasure talking. Flying High Social. That’s what it’s called. Flying High Social came back to me. The guy who runs his name is Mike. All right, guys. Appreciate Charles McDonald for sharing his insights, as unpopular as they may be to some, but very popular to others. So, you know, we we try to get both sides of the equation. You know, you decide, you know, do you do you side with Kevin Knight and say, “Hey, the tradeup was great, or do you side with Charles McDonald, hey, the trade-up was terrible.” Or, you know, are you a normal person? Just say it could go either way. Ask me in six months, Aaron. That’s basically how I feel about it. So, uh, we will see what that winds up being for the Atlanta Falcons. Um, tomorrow’s episode, I think we will be doing a 53man roster projection, and I’ll give you my thoughts on the 53 players and potentially 16 practice squatterers that will uh, be making this Falcons uh, 69, you’re nice. Uh, you know, roster and whatnot. upcoming this year. Uh, will they be keeping any of these UDFAs? That’s going to be a big question. Uh, so that will be something in store for you on tomorrow’s episode. So, uh, continue to make Lockdown Falcons your first listen. Uh, check check us out by subscribing or following free on YouTube or wherever you listen to podcasts, uh, to get the latest episode as soon as it is available. And of course, you can always check out the incredible content here on the Lock on Podcast Network, right? Whether you’re checking out Locked on Hawks, locked on Braves, Locked On Bulldogs, or you want to check out, you know, some of these national shows, locked on NFL, of course, locked on NFL draft still got you covered. locked on NFL scouting with the draft dudes, Kyle Krabs and Joe Marino, not only giving you the scoop on, you know, who won the draft, who lost the draft, who got the value picks, who didn’t, who reached, all that stuff, as well as all the various fifth year options and how they impact the ro, it’s all about roster building. If you want to have a deeper insight into team building, roster building, how to manage draft picks, salary cap, all that in store, uh, locked on NFL scouting with the draft dudes with Joe and Kyle is the place for you. It’s all part of the Lock on Podcast Network, your team every day.

The Atlanta Falcons trading up for James Pearce in the 2025 NFL Draft has sparked debate, with fans and analysts questioning the cost of this aggressive move. Host Aaron Freeman and guest Charles McDonald (@YahooSports) dissect the Falcons’ draft decisions, focusing on the impact of the Pearce trade and Jalon Walker on the team’s present and future. They explore how these new additions might fit into the Falcons’ evolving defensive scheme, drawing comparisons to past defenses.

#atlantafalcons #nfl #nfldraft #freeagency #jamespearcejr #jalonwalker #terryfontenot #xavierwatts #billybowmanjr

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