{"id":27912,"date":"2025-05-06T08:39:16","date_gmt":"2025-05-06T08:39:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/27912\/"},"modified":"2025-05-06T08:39:16","modified_gmt":"2025-05-06T08:39:16","slug":"nfl-insiders-critical-of-falcons-trade-for-james-pearce-jr","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/27912\/","title":{"rendered":"NFL Insiders Critical of Falcons’ Trade For James Pearce Jr."},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\"Tennessee<\/p>\n

<\/a>Falcons draft picks Jalon Walker (left) and James Pearce Jr. (right). Photo via Atlanta Falcons on X.<\/p>\n

The Atlanta Falcons surprised the NFL world by giving up an arm and a leg to jump back into the first round of the 2025 NFL Draft, where they wound up taking Tennessee EDGE rusher James Pearce Jr. with the 26th overall pick. This also came after the Falcons had already taken Georgia EDGE rusher Jalon Walker with the 15th overall pick in the draft.<\/p>\n

In order to secure Pearce\u2019s landing spot at 26, the Falcons traded away<\/a> their 2026 first-round pick, No. 46 in the 2025 draft, and No. 242 in the 2025 draft. In return, Atlanta received the Los Angeles Rams\u2019 No. 26 and No. 101 picks in the 2025 draft.<\/p>\n

Reaction to Atlanta\u2019s move has varied. Some were very optimistic<\/a> about the move because of the way it immediately and meaningfully addressed the Falcons\u2019 pass-rush needs. Others, though, have been critical of the draft capital that Atlanta gave away.<\/p>\n

ESPN NFL insider Dan Graziano<\/a> is one of the ones who has issues with the Falcons\u2019 pick \u2013 or, trade, rather. Graziano seems fine with Pearce as a prospect, but doesn\u2019t sound all that sold on giving up a first in 2026 to do so. On Monday, he listed the Falcons\u2019 second first-round pick as his biggest head-scratcher of the 2025 draft.<\/p>\n

\u201cEdge rusher James Pearce Jr. to the Falcons (No. 26). This isn\u2019t about the player; it\u2019s about the price the Falcons paid to move up for him,\u201d Graziano wrote<\/a>. \u201cAtlanta needed edge rush help and already got some earlier in the round with Jalon Walker. Trading next year\u2019s first-round pick to get Pearce felt like a massive overpay, especially after the Giants gave up only two third-round picks to trade up to No. 25.\u201d<\/p>\n

More From RTI: A Prediction That Could Fuel Tennessee\u2019s Fire Until the 2025 Season<\/a><\/p>\n

Graziano wasn\u2019t the only one, though. Out of 16 ESPN analysts who made a pick for the head-scratching selection, three picked the Falcons\u2019 first-round trade. Some of the selections are critical of a particular player or his production, but the Atlanta picks all go back to the trade that was made to acquire said player.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Falcons trading up for Pearce,\u201d Mike Tannenbaum wrote about his biggest head scratcher<\/a>. \u201cWhile his ability is undeniable, giving up a future first-round pick is always risky, especially since Pearce\u2019s predraft evaluations were all over the place.\u201d<\/p>\n

ESPN\u2019s Seth Walder<\/a> echoed a similar thought, saying, \u201cSurrendering a future first-round pick to move up for a non-QB is almost always bad business, but it\u2019s a particularly poor move for the Falcons. That\u2019s because Michael Penix Jr. has three career starts, so there are plenty of worlds where the Falcons gave up a top-10 or even a top-five pick in this deal.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Falcons appear to be pleased with their Day 1 haul, adding Walker and Pearce from nearby SEC programs. And if Atlanta really did go into the draft with the desire to improve its defensive line and pass rush, then mission accomplished. We\u2019ll see if things sour over time, which they could, but all signs point to Atlanta being a better pass rush team this year because of Pearce and Walker.<\/p>\n

Will it be enough for the Falcons to be satisfied with skipping straight to Day 2 in 2026? We\u2019ll have to wait and see to find out.<\/p>\n

Check out ESPN\u2019s full NFL Draft best and worst breakdown from Monday here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Falcons draft picks Jalon Walker (left) and James Pearce Jr. (right). Photo via Atlanta Falcons on X. The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27913,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2074],"tags":[223,254,2554,224,7,1497,6,1209,6364],"class_list":{"0":"post-27912","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-atlanta-falcons","8":"tag-atlanta","9":"tag-atlanta-falcons","10":"tag-atlantafalcons","11":"tag-falcons","12":"tag-football","13":"tag-james-pearce","14":"tag-nfl","15":"tag-tennessee-football","16":"tag-tennessee-vols"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114459991718562855","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27912","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27912"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27912\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27913"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27912"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27912"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27912"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}