When the Atlanta Falcons set their NFL draft board each year, they place prospects into three buckets.
The first bucket -- "win-because-of" starters -- is the smallest. Some years, assistant general manager Kyle Smith said, the bucket contains only 12 players. In other years, the number may reach 15 or even the high 20s. The exact number may change, but the rarified air of what Smith dubbed "elite, high-level, solid" players stay the same.
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Draft needs don't always align with the strength of the top bucket. For the Falcons, the 2025 draft class did -- and Atlanta walked away with two players it viewed in the draft's highest tier.
The Falcons patiently sat at No. 15 overall and watched as Georgia edge rusher Jalon Walker, a potential top five selection, slipped to their pick. Atlanta did its due diligence on the trade market, but general manager Terry Fontenot said once Walker was still available when the Falcons were on the clock, they had little hesitation.
So, Atlanta took Walker, adding one of the draft's premier defenders -- while bypassing another of its top-bucket players in James Pearce Jr., a two-time first-team All-SEC pass rusher from Tennessee.
The Falcons, however, weren't satisfied. After choosing Walker, Fontenot said he immediately started working the phones. His target was always Pearce. Fontenot said it's safe to say Atlanta wouldn't have made a move for anyone else.
After a few tries -- including at No. 20 with the Denver Broncos and No. 25 with the Houston Texans, according to Sports Illustrated insider Albert Breer -- fell short, the Falcons found a partner with the Los Angeles Rams at No. 26.
Atlanta moved a seventh-round pick and 2026 first-round pick to trade up 20 spots and select Pearce, adding a 2025 third-round pick in the process. The Falcons deemed it a logical move.
Desperate for pass rush and benefitted by a board that fell in its favor, Atlanta, which entered the draft with one pick in the first 45 selections, suddenly had two of its top-rated players in the class.
"Where we were at 15, as the draft was unfolding, we identified pressure players -- which is something that we were going after, obviously, defensive side of the ball," Smith said. "There were a number of players there that we said to ourselves, 'If we were going into next year, you always need multiple pressure players.'
"If we're going into next year, we were hoping that Jalon Walker would be there next year, a James Pearce would be there next year to take another pressure player. Well, this year we're sitting there and we've got an opportunity, if it works, to take two players from that bucket."
Atlanta capitalized on the opportunity. Walker's draft day fall created a "great scenario," one that quickly prompted conversations within the Falcons' war room.
"It's like, ‘Man, how do we get two of these studs?'" Fontenot said. "Let's figure out a way to do that. Let's really impact this thing, and let's really figure out a way to do that."
The Falcons did so. Fontenot, subsequently, said he slept well thereafter.
The reason? Atlanta landed the player it very well may have taken at No. 15 overall -- Pearce -- 11 picks later, all the while securing an explosive chess piece in Walker.
Fontenot declined to say whether the Falcons would have drafted Pearce with their original pick. Defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich was less secretive.
“I think we all would have been comfortable with that,” Ulbrich said.
Atlanta spent considerable time with Pearce during the pre-draft process, capped by a flight to his hometown of Charlotte on April 23, the day before the first round of the draft.
The 21-year-old Pearce faced off-field criticism throughout the spring. According to The Athletic, Pearce's concerns "pertain to his on-field drive and attitude," along with his maturity. Atlanta feels confident and comfortable Pearce will be a positive locker room addition.
On the field, the Falcons were tantalized by Pearce's athleticism, explosiveness and production -- he had 17.5 sacks over the past two years at Tennessee.
Projected as a top five pick entering the season, Pearce's talent isn't a question.
"I think you could have made a claim -- you could obviously make projections of what guys will be when you feature them and develop them, but if you looked at the best rushers in this draft, you could have made a case that he was the best one from a pure edge element," Ulbrich said. "So, we had conviction in that.
"We ... felt great about the man he is and the player he is. So, when he was still there in the first, I was pounding the table and I know our entire staff was and I know Terry was on the same page with that."
The Falcons believe both Walker and Pearce can be impactful rookies. Atlanta, which finished second-to-last in the NFL with 31 sacks in 2024, wanted to address its defense. It thought Pearce could be the answer at No. 15. Instead, he's one of two valid solutions at a spot that centers around strength in numbers.
And about that first-round pick in 2026? The Falcons are unbothered by it. They plan on watching that pick -- which, in their eyes, is Pearce -- hunt opposing quarterbacks a year sooner than expected. The second round pick that became a third in the same deal? That pick ended up being another possible starter in safety Xavier Watts.
"I have high hopes for this team, and because of that, I'm anticipating that first round pick next year is late," Ulbrich said. "Because of that, you think of it like, 'Is there going to be a James Pearce-type player in the late 20s?' I would say absolutely not, in any draft, let alone next year's draft."
And evidently, there was a chance Pearce could've gone off the board much sooner in the 2025 draft -- at No. 15, to be exact.
