Falcons defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich says rookie linebacker James Pearce has a combination of size and speed that you just don’t see, even among the NFL’s most talented athlete.
Ulbrich said that he had watched film of Pearce playing edge rusher at Tennessee and was so impressed with how well he moved to blow past blockers and chase quarterbacks that he lost sight of how big Pearce is at 6-foot-5 and 248 pounds.
“I remember that first time I met him,” Ulbrich said, via AtlantaFalcons.com. “I was like, ‘Oh my god.’ . . . This was not what I was expecting. To be that size and have that sort of movement and speed? It’s special.”
Ulbrich said there are few 6-foot-5 athletes who show the quickness that Pearce displays.
“Evaluating him, you see the speed, you see the explosion, the ability to bend and turn the corner tight — all the things great rushers have — but the movement is so exceptional at times, that speed, that you think he is 6-foot-1, or 6-foot-2,” Ulbrich said. “You think he is a smaller man because the movement is fantastic.”
The Falcons made a bold trade up to get Pearce, giving up their 2026 first-round pick in the process. That’s a move a team only makes for a player they’re convinced is a special talent. Ulbrich thinks they mad the right move.
