Swimfinfan
The NFL draft is one of the biggest off-field events in all of sports. This year's 1st round had 205,000 people in attendance.
The hometown Atlanta Falcons came into the first round of the 2025 NFL Draft with an obvious need at pick 15: pass rush. Finishing 31st in sacks last season in a 32-team league is not ideal, and quite frankly, not new. According to StatMuse the Falcons are dead last in the entire NFL in sacks over the last ten seasons.
While advised by most experts across varying sites to take a pass rusher, the local fans just never know what the Falcons will do. In previous years the Falcons had been on mock drafts taking defensive line and surprised everyone by taking offensive skill players. The 2017 drwft was the last time the Falcons selected a defensive end or linebacker on the first day, which is hard to hear for fans after seeing those sack numbers year after year. It was even harder when every football fan in the country saw the Eagles become the world champions behind their vintage defensive line that included three former local college University of Georgia players on it.
In just the past five years, UGA has had the most players drafted at 49 of any team in the NCAA, mostly on the defensive side of the ball, with 12 of those players going in the first round right in the franchise’s backyard. Zero of those 12 players were taken by the Falcons, however. In fact, the team had not ever drafted a UGA player in the first round, much to a large portion of the fan base’s dismay that cheers for both teams.
“UGA is one of the Falcons’ home college football teams.” University of North Georgia sophomore Ayden Hudson said. “I think it would make sense to take more highly talented defensive guys from them, who play in a conference with so much talent.”
On April 3, 2025, that changed. With the 15th pick in the 2025 NFL Draft, the Falcons selected Jalon Walker, OLB/edge rusher from UGA. Who exactly is Jalon Walker? Well, the Salisbury, NC, native collected 12.5 sacks in three years with the Bulldogs and was named the winner of the Butkus Award, handed out to the nation’s best linebacker.
They weren’t just content there making one of the four trades made on the night to move back into the first round for another pass rusher. With the 26th pick in the 2025 NFL Draft, the Falcons selected James Pierce Jr., edge rusher from the University of Tennessee. Pierce who grew up in Charlotte, NC collected 19.5 sacks in his three seasons as a Volunteer.
“They know they needed to go get rushers. They addressed the need and got the guys they wanted, so if I have to pick somebody who won the draft tonight, I am going with the Atlanta Falcons.” – Gerald McCoy, NFL Network Analyst and former NFL All-Pro