James Pearce Jr.'s NFL Future at Risk

What They're Saying

Associated Press: "According to jail records, Pearce is facing charges of two counts of aggravated battery with a deadly weapon, as well as aggravated stalking and fleeing or eluding police with lights or siren. Bond was not immediately set on all the charges."

Falcons statement: "We are aware of an incident involving James Pearce Jr. in Miami. We are in the process of gathering more information and will not have any further comment on an open legal matter at this time."

Unnamed NFC executive on Pearce just back at draft time, via ESPN's Jeremy Fowler: "What concerns me is they gave up a first-rounder for a player with character concerns."

Fowler added that Pearce was "off multiple team's draft boards because of maturity concerns," according to a source.

Fantasy Football Impact

Since-fired Falcons GM Terry Fontenot said the team got "thorough" in its evaluation before trading up for Pearce ... but I guess they missed a spot.

We'll see how this situation progresses. We have seen players face initially damning charges only to emerge fairly unscathed both legally and in terms of league punishment. Just last offseason, for example, we saw domestic-violence accusations against Browns RB Quinshon Judkins seem to threaten his rookie year before melting away.

Of course, Pearce got picked up after crashing his car amid a police chase. So this sure doesn't look like a situation that's going away.

There's not much to do on the IDP front until we get more concrete fallout from Pearce's process. But you should approach 2026 (and beyond for dynasty) as though you might soon lose the young edge player altogether.

Atlanta, meanwhile, figures to once again treat the pass rush as a position of need this offseason.