When the Atlanta Falcons made the bold choice to not just trade away their 2026 first-round pick, but to trade it away for an edge rusher in James Pearce, it caused a ton of head scratches. Don’t get me wrong, Pearce showed that he will be a very special player in this league, but only time will tell if the Falcons made the right choice to give up a first rounder to get him.
The Falcons finished the season at 8-9 and they would have had the 13th overall pick, but now it belongs to the LA Rams who were so close to punching their ticket to the Super Bowl.
While they still might be processing the close loss to the Seattle Seahawks, they can turn their focus into bringing in not one but two first-round talents.
The Falcons, who will have a new regime, will be forced to watch an in-conference team make a potential impactful pick that could have been with the Falcons. While free agency is first, there will be countless mock drafts leading up to the event in April and Falcons can’t do anything other than see different predictions that the Rams could make with Atlanta’s original pick.
Latest NFL mock draft has Rams utilizing Falcons' original first round pick in huge way
NFL analyst Daniel Jeremiah put together his NFL mock draft 1.0 and in this mock, the Falcons see the Rams taking a very impactful playmaker in WR Makai Lemon out of USC.
"The Rams value tough, rugged receivers who are also playmakers. It would almost be unfair to add Lemon to an offense that already includes Puka Nacua and Davante Adams."Daniel Jeremiah, NFL.com
The Rams already have one of the best offenses in the league, and if they were to get someone like Lemon to learn from Puka Nacua and Davante Adams, along with catching passes from Matt Stafford, that would be extremely dangerous to the rest of the league. Knowing that Atlanta could have had the opportunity to add some serious talent at that spot could very well hurt the organization.
While Atlanta has plenty of offensive playmakers, you can never have too many especially with a new offensive-minded head coach in Kevin Stefanski.
The Falcons are going to have to do some serious scouting and do a ton of homework on later round prospects that they will have the chance to bring in. Again, getting a young edge rusher like James Pearce has paid off so far, but the long-term will really tell us if Atlanta made the right decision or not.