His eight-game suspension is finally over, and the Atlanta Falcons are finally going to get star edge-rusher James Pearce Jr. back against the Cincinnati Bengals. After a promising rookie season, Pearce is going to make his season debut in Week 9--and hopefully pick up where he left off last year.
In 2025, Pearce recorded 10.5 sacks, becoming the first Falcons pass-rusher to surpass 10+ sacks since Vic Beasley back in 2016. And while the pass-rush has mostly stayed afloat in his absence, their lack of star power has started to become an issue of late as the pressure hasn't gotten home the same way it was to start the year, as the 23.7% pressure rate the last three games is 27th in the NFL.
With Pearce (and Jalon Walker) sidelined, Atlanta relied on Cameron Thomas, Za'Darius Smith, and Samson Ebukam to carry the load at getting to the quarterback. And don't get me wrong, that's a solid group of players, but none of them are as dangerous off the edge as JPJ has proven to be, so his return will add a spark to a Falcons' pass-rush that badly needs it after a brutal loss to the Bucs.
The return of the 23-year-old should take pressure off of the rest of the edge room, especially now that they have a budding star offenses have to worry about. However, third-year defensive tackle Brandon Dorlus should be happiest about this news since he can do more damage from the interior.
Dorlus is one of the better pass-rushers on the team, as his 8.5 sacks last season were second on the team behind Pearce. He was positively impacted by an elite pass-rush, as many of his sacks came in clean-up on plays where No. 27 (or even Walker) was able to to generate the initial pressure.
And this same formula should repeat itself down the stretch this season.
James Pearce Jr.'s return will help Brandon Dorlus get his sack numbers back up
Unlike last season, Dorlus has been off to a slow start in 2026, as while his 24 pressures are tied for eighth-most among all DTs, he's struggled to finish plays. He has just one sack on nearly 200 pass-rushing snaps and has consistently been out-performed by his teammate Gervon Dexter Sr. this year.
The 25-year-old was supposed to take another step forward at getting to the QB this season, but since the edge guys haven't made his job any easier, only the pressure numbers have followed. The sack numbers have been down, but the return of James Pearce Jr. should help to change that issue.
That's the thing though: this was the exact same story we saw last season. The Oregon product started the year off slow, recording just 1.5 sacks through seven games, but turned up down the stretch, amassing seven sacks across the final eight games to ignite his breakout in real time.
It's still in the realm of possibility for the same story to happen again this year.
The activation of the 2025 first-round pick means that the Dirty Birds may finally get the side of Brandon Dorlus they expected to see entering the season, since having a star pass-rusher get home will help him get those sacks in clean-up again--while Dexter could also stand to benefit from this.
And while it may take Pearce some time to get back up to speed and to his pre-suspension form, it won't matter. The guy is a straight-up disruptor who's sheer presence makes this Atlanta pass rush better.
Brandon Dorlus has still had a good year, but has been a little disappointing relative to expectations Falcons fans had for him-- but not for long, because James Pearce Jr.'s return is coming at the perfect time for him to get those sack numbers back up to where they were in 2025.
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