FLOWERY BRANCH, Ga. -- Jalon Walker was getting a ride to Charlotte, North Carolina, late Thursday night from his home in Salisbury, N.C. He was scheduled to fly to the Atlanta Falcons' facility the next morning on the team's private jet.
Little did he know, he would have company.
The Falcons drafted Walker out of Georgia with the No. 15 pick in Thursday's NFL draft. That was scheduled to be Atlanta's only first-round pick, but general manager Terry Fontenot wasn't done. The aggressive GM traded back into the first round, acquiring the Los Angeles Rams' No. 26 pick with which the Falcons selected edge rusher James Pearce Jr. out of Tennessee.
Walker looked down at his phone while he was on his way to Charlotte and saw the news.
"I'm like, 'What?!'" Walker said. "James Pearce is a Falcon?"
He wasn't the only one who was surprised. All of a sudden, the pass-rush-starved Falcons had drafted two of the SEC's best players at getting to the quarterback. It came at a hefty cost, though. Atlanta had to send its first-round pick in 2026 to the Rams, plus a second-rounder and seventh-rounder in this draft, to move up to grab Pearce. The Falcons also got a 2025 third-round pick in the swap.
Just a few weeks after Falcons owner Arthur Blank said he had a "very clear" conversation with Fontenot and coach Raheem Morris about how disappointed he was with last season's 8-9 record, the front office displayed a win-now mentality. If the Falcons extend their streak of missing the playoffs to eight years, the team's 2026 draft picks might be made by a different regime. But for now, confidence was flying high.
Then again, Fontenot doesn't need encouragement to be aggressive. This was the fourth consecutive time the Falcons have traded up under Fontenot, who was hired in 2021. They've also made multiple splashy first-round selections that have drawn criticism. This one -- sacrificing a first-rounder next year for Pearce -- can be added to that list.
While the cost was high, Fontenot and Morris were all smiles. The Falcons got two players they believe can improve a defense that registered just 31 sacks last season, better than only the New England Patriots' 28. The Falcons already believe they can have one of the best offenses in the NFL, led by rising second-year quarterback Michael Penix Jr., receiver Drake London and running back Bijan Robinson.
"Man, just telling you, I slept good last night," Fontenot said with a laugh Friday.
NEW FALCONS DEFENSIVE coordinator Jeff Ulbrich texted Fontenot at around 2 a.m. Friday morning. He couldn't contain his happiness about how Atlanta ended up with Pearce after drafting Walker.
"I am just excited and appreciative for him putting a lot of trust in us as a defensive staff, and that we're going to utilize [Pearce] in the right way," Ulbrich said.
Pearce was one of the guys the Falcons wanted most. In fact, Fontenot said they would have been more than comfortable taking Pearce at No. 15. But then, Walker surprisingly dropped to that spot after some analysts projected him as one of the first defenders taken in the draft. Walker, Ulbrich said, was "just too hard to pass up."
Once the Falcons selected Walker, Fontenot immediately got back on the phone to try to trade back into the first round -- for Pearce specifically. Had Pearce been snatched up, Fontenot said, Atlanta would not have made the move it did and would have likely stood pat. That's how much the Falcons liked Pearce.
Walker drew raves for his versatility at Georgia, excelling as an off-ball linebacker, as well as an edge rusher. He even took 50 snaps last season as a nickel corner on one of the nation's best defenses.
Pearce has incredible speed, running a 4.47-second 40-yard dash at the combine, and had 17.5 sacks combined the past two seasons. Ulbrich said when it came to pass rushers in this class, "You could have made a case that he was the best one from a pure edge element."
The Falcons had done their due diligence on Pearce, who refuted criticism questioning his love for the game.
Fontenot and Morris met with Pearce and his mother last Wednesday, one day before the draft's first round, in Pearce's hometown of Charlotte.
"I would say it helped," Morris said.
It wasn't the only thing that sealed the deal, though. The Falcons were confident in their vetting process even before the meeting and didn't put a ton of credence into the rumors. Pearce said Friday he does love the game and is coming in with a bit of a chip on his shoulder due to some of those predraft rumblings.
Fontenot used the word "conviction" several times in discussing the decision to trade back into the first round to grab Pearce. The Falcons really liked the player. And it didn't hurt that the team has struggled in the pass rush for years and has not had a double-digit sack leader since 2017. The Falcons were 31st in pressure rate (28.1%) in 2024.
"Make no mistake about it, it is very hard to find pass rushers," Morris said.
And now Atlanta has two new ones, both first-round picks. The Falcons are set with their offense, and the defense might have taken a major step up with the additions of Walker and Pearce, as well as third-round pick Xavier Watts, a safety, and fourth-round pick Billy Bowman Jr., who will play nickel corner.
"It was just an amazing collaboration," said Ulbrich, the former interim head coach and defensive coordinator of the New York Jets. "It's the best I've ever been around."
FONTENOT SAID LAST week in his predraft news conference that the Falcons have a chart that tracks the tendencies of other general managers, whether they like to trade up or down in the draft or simply stand pat. When asked where he would be on that chart, Fontenot laughed and said: "I'm 75% trade up. I'm more aggressive."
Indeed, he is. The Falcons have made outside-the-box moves several times in his tenure, including last season when they drafted Penix at No. 8 just weeks after signing veteran quarterback Kirk Cousins to a $100 million guaranteed contract.
Like this year, the Falcons were one of the main headlines -- and one of the teams most criticized -- coming out of last year's first round. The selection of Penix has aged well, though. Cousins broke down in the middle of last season, and Atlanta believes Penix will be its franchise quarterback.
Last year, the Falcons reasoned that they wanted Penix partly because they didn't believe they would be in position to draft a potentially elite quarterback this year. And they're saying the same thing now about Pearce, that they don't believe that they would be able to get a pass rusher of his ability even if they had a first-round pick in 2026.
The Falcons weren't able to make as many moves as they wanted in free agency because of salary cap constraints. They were able to bolster their front seven with veterans in edge rusher Leonard Floyd (one year, $10 million contract) and defensive lineman Morgan Fox (two years, $5.5 million) for a relatively small amount of money.
"Make no mistake about it, it is very hard to find pass rushers." Raheem Morris
Now, with what they think will be a high-powered offense, they are hoping Ulbrich has enough pieces on defense to make the Falcons the favorite in a wide-open NFC South.
"I feel like I believe in what the head guys were doing, and they knew what they were doing," said Pearce, who flew down to Atlanta with Walker on Friday morning. "They brought both of us in here, so they got a plan and it's up to me and Jalon to follow it."
Fontenot got another text Friday morning. It was from Jerry Gray, the Falcons' assistant head coach and a sage-like figure in the organization with 30 years of coaching experience. It was the type of message that will be revisited after the rookie seasons for Walker and Pearce.
"Hey, congratulations on last night -- great moves," Gray wrote to Fontenot. "Very excited about what we're adding to this team. Great night.
"But in the famous words of Janet Jackson, she famously sang, 'What have you done for me lately?'"
Additional reporting by Jeremy Fowler.