{"id":861144,"date":"2026-04-08T15:50:18","date_gmt":"2026-04-08T15:50:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/861144\/"},"modified":"2026-04-08T15:50:18","modified_gmt":"2026-04-08T15:50:18","slug":"kevin-stefanski-falcons-james-pearce-not-at-offseason-workouts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/861144\/","title":{"rendered":"Kevin Stefanski: Falcons’ James Pearce not at offseason workouts"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

Marc RaimondiApr 8, 2026, 11:15 AM ET<\/p>\n

Close<\/a>Marc Raimondi’s first year covering the Falcons was 2024, but it wasn’t his first year at ESPN. He joined the company in 2019 and was a top combat sports reporter. He also covered professional wrestling and wrote the book “Say Hello to the Bad Guys: How Pro Wrestling’s New World Order Changed America,” which was published by Simon & Schuster in 2025. Raimondi also worked for the New York Post and Newsday, beginning in 2009, covering high school and college sports, plus the NFL, NFL, MLB and NHL.<\/p>\n

Multiple Authors<\/p>\n

FLOWERY BRANCH, Ga. — Atlanta Falcons<\/a> coach Kevin Stefanski said Wednesday that edge rusher James Pearce Jr<\/a>. is not with the team at the start of the voluntary offseason workout program.<\/p>\n

Pearce is facing four criminal charges, including three felonies, in Florida in relation to allegedly crashing his vehicle into one driven by his ex-girlfriend and WNBA player Rickea Jackson<\/a> in February.<\/p>\n

Pearce, 22, has a trial hearing scheduled for May 4 in Miami-Dade County. A dating violence hearing regarding Jackson’s protective order against Pearce is scheduled for May 6.<\/p>\n

Editor’s Picks<\/p>\n

2 Related<\/p>\n

The Falcons have not commented on the situation other than saying they have been monitoring it.<\/p>\n

“We’ve been in constant communication with his representation,” Stefanski said Wednesday.<\/p>\n

The three felony charges Pearce is facing from the Feb. 7 incident are aggravated battery with a deadly weapon, fleeing and eluding police and resisting an officer with violence to his or her person. The fourth charge of felony aggravated stalking is a misdemeanor.<\/p>\n

Pearce allegedly followed the car of Jackson, his ex-girlfriend, and repeatedly used his vehicle to collide with hers as she attempted to reach the Doral (Florida) police station.<\/p>\n

After being confronted by a police officer, Pearce allegedly fled in his vehicle and took police on a chase before crashing at an intersection. He fled the vehicle on foot before being subdued by officers and then allegedly resisting arrest.<\/p>\n

Pearce, selected by the Falcons with the 26th pick in the 2025 NFL draft, had 10.5 sacks last season as a rookie.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Marc RaimondiApr 8, 2026, 11:15 AM ET CloseMarc Raimondi’s first year covering the Falcons was 2024, but it…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":745174,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2074],"tags":[223,254,2554,224,7,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-861144","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\/116369886310324008","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/861144","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=861144"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/861144\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/745174"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=861144"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=861144"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=861144"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}