James Pearce Jr. (Tennessee EDGE) -- DRAFTED BY ATLANTA #26

March 22Mar 22

He has the muscle mass of ricky sapp and potentially has the worst character of anyone in the class.

I cant understand the fan club for this guy.

March 22Mar 22

On 3/22/2025 at 10:41 AM, HazletonEagle said:

lol

Let’s just ignore my very next post …

On 10/16/2024 at 6:53 PM, time2rock said:

I’m not sure exactly what we are yet. We very well could be a bottom third team. We could end up being a top third team (or better). I’ve been on record since this spring saying I expected a slow start to this season (due to 2 new coordinators, the losses of Kelce, Cox, and others, all the new players, etc. The hope was (and still is) that as the season progresses they start coming together and playing more cohesive football. All Sirianni needs to really do is (1) let the coordinators do their jobs (don’t meddle) and (2) keep the players buying in and working hard.

March 23Mar 23

12 hours ago, HazletonEagle said:

He has the muscle mass of ricky sapp and potentially has the worst character of anyone in the class.

I cant understand the fan club for this guy.

When you have a guy that is a legit 6' 5" and can run a 4.47 forty and was productive in college at a big school, it's not hard to imagine he can add 10 lbs or so to his frame without a huge loss in speed. As for the character, unless there is something we haven't heard about, it seems a little overblown and smokescreenish.

Head Coach Josh Heupel after pro day:

On his pitch to NFL teams about taking edge rusher James Pearce Jr. in the first round

"James is a smart player, electric ability to rush the passer. Just seeing his growth on and off the field in three short years, his best is still in front of him. Dynamic playmaker."

On Pearce's intelligence showing during his conversations with NFL teams

"I think the versatility of what we do defensively — four-down, three-down, him playing in the boundary, to the field, off the ball as a linebacker, he's been exposed to all of those things.

"James is extremely bright, retains information extremely quickly. That's important at the next level, (and) the versatility that he has. But he's been able to, in the meetings at the combine, yesterday. He's got a couple more. All of those go into a franchise ultimately drafting a player and the success of the player at the next level. And you can look a couple years in front of him at a guy like Byron Young's success that he's had. James has all those traits mentally to be able to have a really smooth transition to the next level. I've gotten a lot of that feedback back while he was at the combine — head coaches, NFL personnel people — certainly here over the last day and a half."

On how far Pearce as come as a player on the field and as a pro off the field since he arrived at Tennessee

"Young men, when they come into our building, they're at varying levels of maturity. It's our job to accelerate them as fast as we can. James has done a really good job. The football understanding grew really quickly and has continued to grow. Developing as a man, as a person, he's done a really good job of continuing that, too."