{"id":734678,"date":"2026-02-07T01:47:49","date_gmt":"2026-02-07T01:47:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/734678\/"},"modified":"2026-02-07T01:47:49","modified_gmt":"2026-02-07T01:47:49","slug":"surprise-james-pearce-jr-award-snub-has-falcons-fans-questioning-everything","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/734678\/","title":{"rendered":"Surprise James Pearce Jr. award snub has Falcons fans questioning everything"},"content":{"rendered":"<p id=\"inline-text-0\" class=\"mt-[18px] md:mt-0 mb-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"5f\">Despite leading all rookies in sacks, ending the season with 10 sacks in nine games, posting the most sacks by a rookie since Micah Parsons in 2021, and breaking the Atlanta <a href=\"https:\/\/bloggingdirty.com\/james-pearce-jr-has-become-the-pass-rushing-nightmare-falcons-fans-have-dreamed-of-01kbjhff8g9f\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Falcons&#8217; rookie sack record, <\/a>James Pearce Jr. didn&#8217;t win Defensive Rookie of the Year. In fact, he didn&#8217;t even come close to winning.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-1\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"5i\">Out of the 50 votes for the award, Pearce received two first-place votes, while the winner, Cleveland Browns&#8217; linebacker <a href=\"https:\/\/dawgpounddaily.com\/carson-schwesinger-just-became-the-browns-next-defensive-cornerstone-nfl\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Carson Schwesinger<\/a>, received 40. <\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Defensive Rookie of the Year voting:<\/p>\n<p>Carson Schwesinger: 40<br \/>Nick Emmanwori: 7<br \/>James Pearce: 2<br \/>Xavier Watts: 1 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/xKT1MfYnc7\" rel=\"nofollow\">https:\/\/t.co\/xKT1MfYnc7<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Ari Meirov (@MySportsUpdate) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/MySportsUpdate\/status\/2019614730672042089?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">February 6, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-3\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"5o\">Not only is this outcome insane after comparing each player&#8217;s 2025 season, but precedent proves Pearce was the correct pick. In 2024, Jared Verse won DROY honors. The Rams&#8217; pass rusher compiled 4.5 sacks and two passes defended.<\/p>\n<p>James Pearce Jr. deserved the Defensive Rookie of the Year award, and Falcons fans know it <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-5\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"5u\">In 2023, the Texans&#8217; defensive end Will Anderson won the award with seven sacks. In 2019-2020, the same award was won by edge rushers who compiled fewer sacks than Pearce.  The league clearly favors <a href=\"https:\/\/bloggingdirty.com\/louis-riddick-said-the-quiet-part-out-loud-about-james-pearce-jr-s-breakout-season-01kc9p6mjfyc\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">game wreckers<\/a>, which is why five of the last seven DROY recipients are primary pass-rushers. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-6\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"5x\">It&#8217;s hard to compare him to Schwesinger because they aren&#8217;t similar players, but it&#8217;s still not particularly close. Pearce had more sacks, passes defended, forced fumbles, and QB hits. Out of the major statistical categories, Schwesinger had more tackles and tackles for loss. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-7\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"60\">Schwesinger won this prestigious award because of his tackle-merchant season, and that&#8217;s it.  He finished sixth in the NFL in tackles and compiled the fourth most combined tackles by a rookie all-time. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-8\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"63\">Sure, it&#8217;s impressive to stack up that many tackles, but that&#8217;s his biggest quality. Despite the large number of tackles, Schwesinger wasn&#8217;t close to the top of the league in tackles for loss, either at his position or across the board. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-9\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"66\">It&#8217;s hard to imagine why Pearce wasn&#8217;t considered more closely, but he&#8217;s not even the only Falcon snubbed. Rookie safety Xavier Watts finished tied for second in the NFL with five interceptions, posted an above-average missed tackle rate and completion percentage against. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-10\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"69\">Sure, he didn&#8217;t produce as many high-impact plays as Pearce, but receiving just one vote is ridiculous. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-11\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6c\">The NFL honors missed the mark on this award big time, and Falcons fans have had enough. Pearce wasn&#8217;t named to the Pro Bowl, an All-Pro team and hasn&#8217;t won an award this offseason. For some reason the rookie pass rusher has been neglected by the entire league, and that must end today. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-12\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6f\">It appears that Falcons fans are the only ones who see the elite talent he possesses. After all, he <a href=\"https:\/\/bloggingdirty.com\/james-pearce-jr-just-helped-the-falcons-make-history-on-two-consecutive-plays-01ke5948bc3c\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">did the most<\/a> to turn the Falcons&#8217; biggest weakness <a href=\"https:\/\/bloggingdirty.com\/falcons-rookie-duo-are-quietly-validating-terry-fontenot-s-career-defining-gamble-01kch8btw7ek\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">into its biggest strength<\/a>, all in his rookie campaign. <\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Despite leading all rookies in sacks, ending the season with 10 sacks in nine games, posting the most&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":734679,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2074],"tags":[223,254,2554,224,7,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-734678","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-nfl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116026835118953306","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/734678","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=734678"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/734678\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/734679"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=734678"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=734678"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=734678"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}