The Falcoholic
After arguably the most eventful conclusion to a Falcons’ season where they didn’t reach the playoffs, it’s an opportune time to look back on the past season’s high points and take a brief look into the offseason. The daily conversations about the significant organizational changes and latest updates in the search for a new head coach and general manager will continue over the next few weeks. Let’s switch things up from the recent discussions and focus on the players.
The final roundtable of the season always features the most writers to finish strong. Tre’Shon Diaz, Evan Birchfield, Dave Choate, Cory Woodroof, Adnan Ikic, and Aaron Freeman join me for this edition. If you haven’t read a roundtable before, you can view the last one that took place in November to familiarize yourself with the format.
Tre’Shon Diaz: My heart wants to say Zach Harrison. He was on quite the trajectory before his injury ended his season and was the best all-around player on the line, but I’ll go with the team sack leader, James Pearce Jr. Much has been said about the “quality” of Pearce’s sacks, but this team’s scheme would not have functioned without him. Pearce’s ability to execute his role in this defense created opportunities not only for himself but also for others. It’s fair to want to see the rookie take a step next season and win more one-on-one matchups, but he did enough in his first year to help this defense reach a place they haven’t been before.
Evan Birchfield: This is a tough one because there are a lot of players on defense who deserve this recognition. Linebacker Divine Deablo deserves to be the most recognized. There’s likely some data, somewhere, that would back this up, but if you watched every Falcons game in 2025, you know that the defense just looked better when Diablo was out there. I’m not sure if he should be the defensive MVP, the popular answer is likely someone else, but to me, Deablo deserves this recognition.
Dave Choate: In my mind, there’s no question it was Pearce Jr. Brandon Dorlus was hugely in the middle of the line, Deablo was legitimately transformational, and Xavier Watts and A.J. Terrell were huge. But Pearce’s endless reserves of hand-fighting and quarterback-harassing made him a terror; he was a legitimately impactful player over the back half of the season, and he led the way to a record-breaking season for Atlanta’s pass rush.
Value in a lost season is maybe a little more subjective than it is in, say, a playoff season for the Rams when Matthew Stafford is lighting up secondaries. In this case, on-field impact and the sheer hope the rookie pass rusher brought for this defense and the future combine to make Pearce my choice.
Cory Woodroof: I’ll give that to Terrell. Sure, he had a rough game or two, but he holds down one of the toughest jobs in the NFL with such...
