6:24pm: Walker indeed suffered the ACL tear, The Athletic’s Josh Kendall reports. This will shelve the first-round edge rusher for the season, and it represents another blow to a revitalized pass rush. With a Pearce suspension in play and Wright out of the picture for 2026, the Falcons’ pass rush — which finished with the NFL’s second-most sacks last season — has seen its outlook change significantly since the ’25 campaign concluded.
2:55pm: Falcons edge rusher Jalon Walker is feared to have suffered a torn ACL at training camp on Tuesday, per Ian Rapoport and Steve Wyche of NFL Network. The 2025 first-round pick will undergo an MRI to confirm.
Walker went down during Tuesday’s practice and had to be carted off the field with his teammates watching from one knee. The Falcons immediately ended their practice after the injury, underscoring its believed severity. If confirmed, a torn ACL would end Walker’s 2026 season before it even began, which would be a massive loss for an Atlanta defense that was hoping for a second-year breakout from the Georgia product.
Walker, 22, appeared in 15 games as a rookie with nine starts and a 51% snap share. He recorded 5.5 sacks and five tackles for loss, a respectable but somewhat disappointing debut for a top-10 pick. By comparison, fellow Falcons first-round edge rusher James Pearce Jr. posted 10.5 sacks and 10 TFLs, along with a 12.7% pressure rate (compared to Walker’s 9.9%), per Pro Football Focus (subscription required). Walker did rank seventh among all rookies with 29 pressures, and his 10.6% pass rush win rate ranked sixth among rookie edge rushers.
The Falcons are already dealing with the prospect of losing Pearce to a suspension at the beginning of the season stemming from felony charges in April. Now, they could be without Walker for the entire year, which will test their depth at defensive end.
Among the candidates to step into a start role are veteran signings Samson Ebukam, Azeez Ojulari, and Cameron Thomas, the last of whom followed Kevin Stefanski from Cleveland to Atlanta this offseason. The Falcons also have DeAngelo Malone, Zach Harrison, and Bralen Trice, their third-round picks from 2022 to 2024 who have made little impact in the NFL thus far.
That group will likely spend the rest of the summer competing for a starting job in Jeff Ulbrich‘s defense. The Falcons may also explore a free agent addition off the edge, though pickings are slim following Jadeveon Clowney‘s reunion to the Texans. Leonard Floyd, who started 15 games in Atlanta last year, is available, as is Haason Reddick, who appeared in 13 games for the Buccaneers in 2025.
Walker, meanwhile, will face surgery and a lengthy rehab process should his ACL tear be confirmed by further testing. The typical nine-month return timeline would place him back on the field next May, around the time that spring practices will kick off, with the goal of being back to full strength by the regular season.