It has to feel like to some Atlanta Falcons fans that no matter what they do, national NFL analysts aren’t happy.
ESPN’s Seth Walder graded the biggest NFL Draft trades from the first round Thursday. That included Atlanta’s deal where it acquired a second first-round pick in 2025 from the Los Angeles Rams.
With No. 26 overall, the Falcons selected Tennessee edge rusher James Pearce. That was after drafting Georgia’s Jalon Walker.
The Falcons desperately needed pass rushing help. Pundits proposed the possibility of the team drafting two edge rushers in the 2025 NFL Draft but not necessarily in the first round. Before Thursday, most probably would have argued it wasn’t possible.
General manager Terry Fontenot pulled it off, though, dipping into the team’s 2026 draft class. The Falcons sent their No. 46 and 242 overall picks this year and a 2026 first-rounder to the Rams for No. 26 and 101.
The end result was two first-round prospects, rather than just one, to address edge rusher in Atlanta. The Falcons even managed to silence critics that say they don’t draft Georgia players in the first round. How is all that not a win?
Well, Walder argued the Falcons gave up too much in the trade for No. 26 overall.
“I’m sorry, what? Atlanta dealt a future first-rounder to move up from No. 46 to No. 26? For James Pearce Jr.? There’s no way to spin it: This is a poor team-building choice, plain and simple,” wrote Walder.
“It’s not that the Falcons couldn’t use a second pass rusher (they drafted Jalon Walker at pick No. 15). It’s that they surrendered what could end up being a ton of draft capital.”
Walder continued, arguing the Falcons actually paid more for Pearce than Walker. That true, and an odd fact considering they clearly ranked Pearce a low-tier prospect than Walker.
Yet, I’m going to try and spin it positively anyway. Walder’s final trade grade for the Falcons seemed rather harsh. Walder gave the Falcons an F for the deal, and the Rams an A.
Walder didn’t award a grade below a B-minus to any other team that made a first-round trade Thursday.
“This sure looks like a panic move when no panic was required,” wrote Walder.
To me, it looked more like an aggressive move from a general manager perhaps trying to save his job.
Could Fontenot have been more patient and waited to see if Pearce dropped to Day 2? Sure. If that happened, then he likely would have been able to keep his 2026 first-rounder.
But Walder’s biggest point for giving the Falcons an F grade was the possibility that Atlanta’s first-round pick next year could be in the top 10 or even a top 5 choice.
If that happens, Fontenot won’t be around to receive any more Walder criticism because he will likely have been fired. A top-five pick means yet another losing season for the Falcons. If they’re in the top five, the team perhaps wins four games in 2025.
So yes, the trade serves Fontenot maybe a lot more than the Falcons. But if the team’s scouts were high on Pearce, which they undoubtably were, then there’s emmense confidence in the organization that with both Walker and Pearce, the Falcons can be a 2025 playoff team.
Then Atlanta’s 2026 first-rounder would be around when they picked last night.
The trade for Pearce definitely has risk. There’s no denying that. But there’s also a strong possibility for quite a bit of an immediate reward, and an organization aggressively trying to fill big needs deserves better than an F. grade
