The Falcoholic
Don’t you love the bye week? We get a whole Sunday of stress-free football.
But there’s still plenty to talk about regarding the Atlanta Falcons, and one of my favorite topics right now is the performance of Atlanta’s four defensive 2025 draft picks. This week we asked you to grade them, and those results are blow.
The Falcons threw UGA fans a Dawg bone in the first round with the selection of EDGE Jalon Walker. Walker has played 102 snaps this season, which is about 46.5% of the defensive snaps so far this season, notching 10 tackles and one sack so far. Fans give that performance a B.
Next up is the second of the Falcons’ first-round selections in 2025, James Pearce Jr. out of Tennessee. Pearce has played 84 snaps so far, with two tackles and .5 sacks. That’s 38% of the defensive snaps this season.
A couple of things that stand out to me so far about the grades: Bs seem fair to me for both of Atlanta’s young pass rushers. They don’t have eye-popping stats just yet, but they are getting pressure on opposing QBs, and they are contributing early on. Love to see it.
On to Atlanta’s two rookie DBs, starting with CB Billy Bowman Jr. Bowman has been all-caps FUN to watch this season. He’s getting a lot of playing time (178 snaps, almost 82% of the total defensive snaps), and he has 10 solo tackles, seven assists, two pass breakups, one interception, one forced fumble and .5 sacks. What a rookie stat line!
A majority of fans gave Bowman a B grade, but the votes between A and B were very close — 44% gave him an A, with just 2% more giving Bowman a B.
Safety Xavier Watts has gotten the attention of more than just Falcons fans. He earned September Defensive Rookie of the Month honors for his four pass breakups, two picks, and 23 tackles (17 solo) over 217 snaps — 99% of the defensive snaps so far this season. He’s the only rookie who overwhelmingly got an A grade from fans this week — a grade I enthusiastically agree with.
(Yes, I know it’s Watts and not Watt — I didn’t see the typo until Sunday morning and our Reacts guru Kyle Thele is not able to correct it until tomorrow!)
Overall, this draft class is exceeding my expectations both in terms of playing time and performance. And the majority of fans giving the class as a whole an A. Intrepid fans will notice I did not include a grade for Jack Nelson — I don’t think it’s fair or particularly interesting to grade a guy with zero snaps this season. But if you disagree with me, drop your grades for Nelson in the comments.
Is the high estimation of the rookie class impacting fans’ confidence? I think so, and in a positive way.
What are your thoughts on the rookies and their grades? What would you like to see...
