ATLANTA — The 2025 Atlanta Falcons defense etched itself in franchise history in the season finale win against the New Orleans Saints Sunday afternoon.
With 57 total sacks on the year, the unit set a new franchise record for most sacks in a single season, breaking the previous record of 55 sacks in 1997.
Leading the charge for Atlanta was rookie edge rusher James Pearce Jr., who finished the season with 10.5 sacks, two of which came Sunday. The double-digit number is the most sacks by a rookie since Micah Parsons in 2021, when the then-Dallas Cowboy had 13. The Falcons recognize Claude Humphrey as the franchise rookie leader in sacks with 11.5 in 1968.
When Pearce broke the record, chasing Saints quarterback Tyler Shough down towards the Falcons’ sideline, the team erupted when he got him down and the franchise record was secured.
“We were thrilled,” Divine Deablo said. “We were on the sideline, hyping James up. We were proud of the guy. Just keep going. Break another record next season.”
Pearce being the one to solidify the record was significant, too, as the Falcons traded back up into the first round of the 2025 NFL Draft for him. It’s a move head coach Raheem Morris said is rewarding.
“All decisions you make there are always hard. They’re always tough, and they’re always going to be heavily criticized. But it sure is nice when a guy comes out and performs like you think he’s capable of doing,” Morris said postgame. “For James to come out here and get better and better throughout the course of the season, to be able to finish with 10 and a half sacks, arguably the Rookie of the Year, arguably a guy that’s just gotten better throughout the process, that’s helped us be able to get after the quarterback and be able to become a better defense than we were in the past. I can’t say enough about him.”
Jessie Bates III: “We took a chance with James. We traded our first-round pick from next year for this year. It paid off, I think. You got somebody, even ‘J-Walk’ (Jalon Walker) next to him, those two together are like little brother, big brother. Just to see how they want to work together and continue to get better each and every week, I really think they’re starting to figure it out. I’m excited for what’s to come for them.”
It’s not just those two, though. Morris said this record is two years in the making for the roster, which saw significant contribution from second-year players like Ruke Orhorhoro and Brandon Dorlus — the latter of whom finished the season with 8.5 sacks, second on the team behind Pearce. He, too, could have had a chance at a double-digit total had a hamstring injury not sidelined him for the final game of 2025.
“We’ve got to give a lot of credit to (general manager) Terry (Fontenot), obviously, and his staff, able to find ways to build our D-line, build our people up on defense, to be able to go get after the quarterback,” Morris said. “It’s been a two-year process of getting those guys, whether it’s been Brandon Dorlus, whether it’s been Ruke, whether this year – whether it’s been Jalon Walker and all the different guys that are a part of that, and James Pearce, and then obviously building the secondary at the same time, being able to get a guy like (Xavier) Watts, for him to contribute at a high level to make people hold the football, for us to be able to rush it, going out and getting some of the vets like we’ve been able to get in David Onyemata, being able to get Leonard Floyd, being able to utilize ‘AK’ (Arnold Ebiketie), people that have been here before and find ways to get after the quarterback with this defensive staff being creative, I think it was a marriage well met.”
Defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich said early in 2025 that he hoped the team would be a pressure unit “by committee.” They achieved that, seeing as players like Walker, LaCale London, Zach Harrison, Kaden Elliss, Floyd and Orhorhoro all finished the season with more than 3.5 sacks on the year.
This is one of the most significant turnarounds for any team in the league, statistically speaking. The Falcons were second-to-last in sack totals in 2024 with 31. After a 42-sack season in 2023, the team found itself in the bottom quartile of the league in this stat throughout much of the last decade.
A pass rush standard in Atlanta, however, has been reset. And the young core of Falcons pass rushers are hoping this standard remains.
“It was outstanding how the guys just showed up,” Pearce said. “The vets leaned on (the rookies). We leaned back on the vets. They squeezed the lemon and got good juice, you know what I’m saying? Good lemonade. So, they did their job of helping us and holding us to the standard.”
