Pearce Is Back: Falcons Activate Suspended Edge Rusher for Madrid Debut as Robinson Lands on IR

James Pearce Jr. has waited eight weeks to play a down of football this season. On Saturday, the Atlanta Falcons finally gave him the chance. The second-year edge rusher was moved to the active roster, ending a suspension that has kept him out since opening weekend and setting him up for his 2026 debut on Sunday — against Joe Burrow and the Cincinnati Bengals, in Madrid. It has been a strange, frustrating start to the year for a player who looked like one of the brightest young pass rushers in the league twelve months ago. Pearce recorded 10.5 sacks as a rookie, the kind of production that usually earns a player a bigger role, not a watching brief. Instead he was suspended for the first eight games of the season as a result of a domestic violence arrest, and the Falcons have spent the first half of the season getting by without the man they drafted to chase quarterbacks. His return does not come with guarantees, either: he is listed as questionable for Sunday with a back injury, so Atlanta will wait until game day before deciding how much of him they actually get. The timing, though, could hardly be better for a team heading overseas. The Falcons fly to Madrid for their international date with the Bengals short of healthy bodies on both sides of the ball, and Saturday's flurry of moves was as much about patching holes as it was about welcoming anyone back. Linebacker Yasir Abdullah was activated from injured reserve, giving the Falcons another option on the edge alongside Pearce, and wide receiver Beaux Collins came off injured reserve as well. Defensive lineman Drake Jackson was elevated from the practice squad to round out the day. The cost of it all lands in the backfield. Running back Brian Robinson Jr., who has been carrying the load for Atlanta's ground game, was placed on injured reserve with a hamstring injury, ruling him out for at least the next four games. Khalil Herbert, who has filled in for Robinson over the last couple of weeks, was signed from the practice squad to the active roster and will keep that role for the foreseeable future. It is a promotion earned the hard way, in real games, and it comes just as the Falcons need stability at the position most. For Pearce, Sunday is a reset — a chance to show, finally, what the player with 10.5 rookie sacks looks like with a full season ahead of him. The suspension is behind him, the roster spot is his, and the stage is about as big as a regular-season game gets: a standalone international showcase, a star quarterback on the other side, and a Falcons defence that has missed his speed off the edge for two months. Whether his back lets him make the most of it is the one thing Atlanta could not fix on Saturday.