{"id":589774,"date":"2026-04-06T20:12:13","date_gmt":"2026-04-06T20:12:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/589774\/"},"modified":"2026-04-06T20:12:13","modified_gmt":"2026-04-06T20:12:13","slug":"nfl-insider-gives-update-on-falcons-edge-james-pearce-jr","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/589774\/","title":{"rendered":"NFL insider gives update on Falcons EDGE James Pearce Jr."},"content":{"rendered":"

The Atlanta Falcons<\/a> are preparing for the start of voluntary workouts this week, but the team has given no official update edge rusher James Pearce Jr.’s status for 2026. Pearce was arrested back in February after stalking his girlfriend and attempting to evade police.<\/p>\n

Aside from facing three felony charges, the Defensive Rookie of the Year finalist will likely face discipline from the league when he returns. According to a report<\/a> from NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport, Pearce won’t be attending the team’s voluntary workouts on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

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“Falcons edge James Pearce Jr. is not expected to be in attendance for team\u2019s voluntary offseason program when it begins tomorrow, sources say,” said Rapoport<\/a>. “No surprise, as Pearce works through his legal issues. He is charged with three felonies, including aggravated battery with a deadly weapon.”<\/p>\n

Head coach Kevin Stefanski and general manager Ian Cunningham have declined commenting on Pearce, but now that players are set to report for voluntary workouts, the team won’t be able to ignore situation any longer.<\/p>\n

The Falcons traded up in the first round of the 2026 NFL Draft to select Pearce at pick No. 26. The rookie led the team with 10.5 sacks last season but was arrested just two days after losing the Defensive Rookie of the Year award at the NFL Honors.<\/p>\n

The team’s first voluntary workout will be on Tuesday, April 7. Check out the Falcons’ full 2026 offseason workout schedule below.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

Falcons offseason workout schedule for 2026<\/p>\n

Voluntary minicamp: April 20-22<\/p>\n

OTAs: May 26-27, May 29, June 1-2, June 4<\/p>\n

Mandatory minicamp: June 9-11<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on Falcons Wire: Atlanta Falcons: Latest on James Pearce Jr. status<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Atlanta Falcons are preparing for the start of voluntary workouts this week, but the team has given…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":589775,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[559],"tags":[1276,64,63,2360,191492,593,2361,85,288091],"class_list":{"0":"post-589774","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl","8":"tag-atlanta-falcons","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-ian-rapoport","12":"tag-james-pearce","13":"tag-nfl","14":"tag-nfl-network","15":"tag-sports","16":"tag-voluntary-workouts"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/589774","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=589774"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/589774\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/589775"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=589774"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=589774"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=589774"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}