{"id":737265,"date":"2026-02-08T04:26:18","date_gmt":"2026-02-08T04:26:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/737265\/"},"modified":"2026-02-08T04:26:18","modified_gmt":"2026-02-08T04:26:18","slug":"falcons-rookie-james-pearce-jr-arrested-on-battery-charges-after-alleged-police-chase","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/737265\/","title":{"rendered":"Falcons rookie James Pearce Jr. arrested on battery charges after alleged police chase"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"James<\/p>\n

James Pearce Jr. finished third in votes for the NFL’s Defensive Rookie of the Year award on Thursday. Jeff Kravitz \/ FilmMagic via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Atlanta Falcons rookie James Pearce Jr., a first-round pick in the 2025 draft, was arrested near Miami on Saturday on charges of aggravated battery with a deadly weapon, aggravated stalking and fleeing police after allegedly leading police on a chase before crashing his vehicle, according to arrest records.<\/p>\n

The 22-year-old pass rusher faces an additional charge of \u201cresisting an officer without violence to his person,\u201d a Florida charge levied when a suspect allegedly resists arrest but does not hurt any of the officers.<\/p>\n

Pearce was in San Francisco on Thursday to attend the pre-Super Bowl NFL Honors, where he finished third in Defensive Rookie of the Year voting<\/a>\u00a0after leading the Falcons and all rookies with 10.5 sacks this season.<\/p>\n

The Falcons released a statement regarding Pearce\u2019s arrest: \u201cWe are aware of an incident involving James Pearce Jr., in Miami. We are in the process of gathering more information and will not have any further comment on an open legal matter at this time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Atlanta traded a package that included its 2026 first-round pick to the Los Angeles Rams last April for the No. 26 pick it used to take Pearce.<\/p>\n

Leading up to the draft, one anonymous NFL scout<\/a> told The Athletic\u2019s Dane Brugler that \u201cI want to be convinced (Pearce) loves this.\u201d Multiple teams had crossed him off their draft boards due to off-field concerns, another league source told The Athletic. At the time, Pearce said he wasn\u2019t sure what the off-field concerns were.<\/p>\n

Pearce had 19.5 sacks in three seasons at Tennessee, including 17.5 over his final two seasons. The 6-foot-5, 245-pounder ran a 4.47-second 40-yard dash at the NFL combine.<\/p>\n

This story will be updated.<\/p>\n

\"Connections:\"Connections:<\/p>\n

Feb 8, 2026<\/p>\n

Connections: Sports Edition<\/p>\n

Spot the pattern. Connect the terms<\/p>\n

Find the hidden link between sports terms<\/p>\n

Play today’s puzzle<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"James Pearce Jr. finished third in votes for the NFL’s Defensive Rookie of the Year award on Thursday.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":737266,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[254,7,6,15,1541],"class_list":{"0":"post-737265","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl-draft","8":"tag-atlanta-falcons","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-nfl","11":"tag-nfl-draft","12":"tag-tennessee-volunteers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116033119805354518","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/737265","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=737265"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/737265\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/737266"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=737265"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=737265"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=737265"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}