Photo by Thomson200, CC0, via Wikimedia CommonsThe Pick Is Gone. The Players Are Too.
The Falcons traded their 2026 first-round pick to get Pearce and Walker. Today they file a 53-man without either one.
The Falcons traded their 2026 first-round pick to draft James Pearce Jr. and Jalon Walker last April. Fifteenth and twenty-sixth overall. Two first-rounders. The entire defensive identity, built in one night.
Today is 53-man cutdown day. Neither one will be on the roster.
Pearce: eight-game suspension, gone until November. Walker: torn ACL in a non-padded practice, gone for the year. Sixteen combined sacks from 2025 — 28% of a franchise-record 57 — wiped out before the season opener.
Miles already showed you the depth chart. I'm not here for the depth chart. I'm here for the part nobody's saying out loud.
This franchise went from second-to-last in sacks in 2024 to second in the NFL in 2025. That entire transformation was two rookies. Both are gone. And there's no first-round pick this year to fix it — because they spent it getting here.
You traded your future to build a defense. The defense lasted one season. The pick is gone forever.
Week 1 is at Pittsburgh. The Steelers aren't grading on a curve.
The Tilt
The Falcons' franchise-record pass rush lasted exactly one season, and they gave up a first-round pick for the privilege of watching it disappear.
— Dex Ponce
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