In addition to Pearce, the Falcons added veterans Leonard Floyd and Morgan Fox to their defensive line this offseason. They also selected Jalon Walker with the No. 15 pick and plan to have the versatile linebacker focus primarily on playing off the edge in Year 1. Those four newcomers join a young unit looking for a breakout season.
While the Falcons will use training camp to fine-tune what those waves of pass rush look like, it’s clear how Pearce already fits into that puzzle.
“What you’re going to see is speed,” Falcons assistant general manager Kyle Smith said. “I mean, there is juice in his body and twitch and explosion instinct.”
At Tennessee, Pearce was consistently the first one off the ball. He stresses offensive tackles in a blink due to his burst, which can open up multiple paths to the quarterback later in the rep and change how he gets defended as a game wears along. Speed is one of the most difficult attributes to mitigate, and Pearce brings a lot of it to Atlanta’s defense.
Virtually every team in the NFL would prefer to be able to pressure the quarterback with only four pass rushers, which would allow a defense to drop seven players into coverage. That has been difficult for the Falcons to achieve in recent years, and they’ve relied on blitzes and simulated pressures to get players like inside linebacker Kaden Elliss more involved.
After this offseason, however, the Falcons believe a four-man rush is feasible. Pearce’s speed off the edge should pull offensive tackles wide, creating more room for Atlanta’s three-technique — a defensive lineman like Ruke Orhorhoro or David Onyemata — to work against the guard. That is a small example of how pass rushers can benefit one another even if they aren’t working directly together.
This ripple effect is another reason why the Falcons felt compelled to make the aggressive move for Pearce in the draft. Atlanta needed to help its pass rush, so why wait another year to continue to build when an opportunity was present in the moment, especially with a player it thought was in the top tier of prospects?
“If we’re going into next year, we were hoping that Jalon Walker would be there next year, a James Pearce would be there next year to take another pressure player,” Smith said. “Well, this year we’re sitting there, and we’ve got an opportunity, if it works, to take two players from that bucket.”
The Falcons have not been content to take half-measured approaches to their offseason problems. Be it quarterback or edge rusher, there is a level of urgency to the organization’s moves that suggest the team believes it’s not far off from achieving its goals.
If that means paying a little bit more up front to make those goals a reality, the Falcons are willing to do what it takes.
“You talk about putting a premium on pass rush,” Ollie said. “People talk about it, but everybody showed it in the building they’re committed with their actions. Putting a premium on pass rush and getting two pass rushers, that’s great.”