Pearce was arrested and charged with multiple felonies<\/a> earlier this month after allegedly stalking his ex-girlfriend, repeatedly running into her car to try to prevent her from going to police, hitting a police officer with his car, fleeing police, and then resisting arrest, with the last bit being on video. Given the very real potential that he could have severely injured or killed his ex-girlfriend or himself and that cops and prosecutors are not known to be lenient with offenses that involve police, Pearce\u2019s charges should not be waved away, and there\u2019s the very real potential of jail time even though we all have a healthy degree of skepticism toward that for famous athletes. The most exciting pass rusher the Falcons have had in many, many years is facing allegations that mean he may have thrown away his 2026 season or even his entire career, and the Falcons have to plan as though they may not have him for a significant chunk of this upcoming season as a result.<\/p>\nEarly in the year, Floyd put up two sacks in four weeks, and then managed 1.5 over the final 13 weeks of the season. While the pass rushing production wasn\u2019t there\u2014his pressure total per Pro Football Focus was his lowest since 2017 \u2014he was useful enough against he run and occasionally in coverage to be a worthwhile member of the team\u2019s rotation. The fact that his production came early when the rookies were either banged up or still getting their feet under them helped a great deal.<\/p>\n
Given that he\u2019ll be 34 years old in 2026 and his past three seasons show a small but clear pattern of decline, Floyd probably won\u2019t be back unless he\u2019s willing to play on a bargain deal. Having him as a veteran presence and durable, useful outside linebacker in 2025 still mattered a lot.<\/p>\n
As always, Ebiketie got stronger as the year went on. Unlike in past years, the opportunity was not there for him.<\/p>\n
Ebiketie played a new career-low number of snaps in 2025 as he fell out of favor somewhat in Jeff Ulbrich\u2019s defense. His 25 pressures in 384 snaps weren\u2019t bad\u2014Floyd had 36 in 460, for comparison\u2019s sake\u2014and Ebiketie tended to get more pressure when he received more snaps. But overall he managed just two sacks, was the clear fourth fiddle in this group, and had enough quietly disgruntled social media posts to conclude he\u2019s probably gone.<\/p>\n
I would welcome back Ebiketie because his run defense is good enough and his back half production strong enough that he\u2019d be a valuable piece of the puzzle, but his reduction in playing time and clear desire to have a larger role will probably conspire to have him land elsewhere.<\/p>\n
Khalid Kareem & DeAngelo Malone<\/p>\n
Kareem had six pressures in 71 snaps, or a pressure every 12 snaps or so, and was solid against the run in his very limited playing time. He\u2019s someone I want back as a bottom of the depth chart option, because he\u2019s a useful player in limited doses. We don\u2019t know\u2014and probably won\u2019t find out\u2014what he could be with more.<\/p>\n
Malone played just 19 snaps on defense and was quiet in 2025, but he was one of Marquice Williams\u2019 core special teams player. With Williams out as special teams coordinator, Malone may not be back.<\/p>\n
Outlook: Deeply uncertain<\/p>\n
I\u2019m very bullish on Walker, a player who was quietly very good in 2025 and put up 5.5 sacks as a rookie. I think we\u2019re looking at a 7-10 sack player annually who also offers playmaking ability, strong work against the run, and enough promise in coverage to be an asset in every facet of his game. The fact that he\u2019s just entering his second year and the Falcons have a fifth-year option means he should be here a long time, and may well be an elite defender well before that contract is up.<\/p>\n
Everything else is deeply uncertain, as I said in the headline for this section. Pearce is almost certainly heading for a multi-week suspension at best and a hefty prison sentence at worst, though the way his case winds through the legal system could determine whether he\u2019s on the commissioner\u2019s exempt list in Week 1 or suspended. It is within the realm of possibility that the Falcons will determine, either because of what happens in court or what comes out in the months ahead, that they don\u2019t want Pearce on the team and will cut him. Regardless, it\u2019s fair to expect the Falcons to be without Pearce for multiple weeks in 2026 and perhaps entirely.<\/p>\n
Adding to the uncertainty is the fact that the Falcons don\u2019t have a single other full-time outside linebacker\/EDGE under contract right now, though they\u2019ll use Zach Harrison and Brandon Dorlus there in some formations. Floyd would likely only return if he was quite cheap, given his modest production in 2025, and Ebiketie should be headed elsewhere after a quiet season and a diminished role under Jeff Ulbrich. That leaves Khalid Kareem as a beyond-obvious re-signing given his solid run defense and occasional pass rushing chops to be, say, the fourth or fifth guy there; perhaps you bring back DeAngelo Malone for his special teams work. You still need a legitimate second and third guy in the rotation for this group to not take a major step back in 2026.<\/p>\n
With the many needs Atlanta has heading into free agency and the draft, it\u2019s clear they can\u2019t fix everything. But the potentially massive loss of pass rushing production that could come if the Falcons don\u2019t have Pearce and can\u2019t effectively replace their 2025 options could prove to be a fatal problem, so we\u2019ll need to see a smart plan that doesn\u2019t rely on faith and hope to not brace for problems.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It didn\u2019t take long for the good feelings about the Falcons outside linebacker group to curdle. James Pearce…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":762442,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2074],"tags":[223,254,79029,2595,2554,224,7,6],"class_list":["post-762441","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-atlanta-falcons","tag-atlanta","tag-atlanta-falcons","tag-atlanta-falcons-analysis","tag-atlanta-falcons-roster","tag-atlantafalcons","tag-falcons","tag-football","tag-nfl"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116097516518132099","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/762441","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=762441"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/762441\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/762442"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=762441"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=762441"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=762441"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}