Coaching camp in Flowery Department took a flip Sunday when a number of scuffles broke out between the Falcons’ offense and protection throughout reside drills.
One collection, together with the Falcons’ first-team offense going up towards the second-team protection, noticed rookie edge rusher James Pearce and guard Matthew Bergeron, whose helmet was knocked off, interact within the extracurriculars, in accordance with ESPN’s Marc Raimondi.
The forwards and backwards metastasized into a number of gamers throughout each items, shoving one another.
Notably, fellow edge rusher Leonard Floyd stepped in on behalf of Pierce.
Moments later, Pearce squared off with proper sort out Kaleb McGary, resulting in a second heated alternate, once more requiring mediation.
Defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich later addressed the incidents, calling them a studying alternative:
“We’re trying to develop a culture, a style of play for sure, and part of that is the violence with which we play and aggression, the urgency and all that,” the previous interim Jets coach mentioned. “At present, at occasions, it went just a little too far and we’ve received to discover ways to handle that.
“You’re going to get agitated and, especially when you’re playing really good defense, the offense is going to get very agitated, so you’ve got to anticipate punches being thrown, things being said, people getting pushed. In those moments, you got to thrive and not retaliate and so it’s a good lesson to be learned today.”
On Pearce particularly, he added that this was all good-natured, whereas including that there’s a line.
“He’s prideful as it gets,” Ulbrich mentioned. “He loves this recreation. He’s received deep love for his teammates … and he desires to return out right here and create a powerful impression on all people — and himself included — that he can do that.
“And you do this at a high level, and I think when you’re in that place of just every ounce of your body’s trying to prove who you are, sometimes it gets to that place where it can get a little wacky sometimes. His anger got the best of him a little bit and it is going to be a great learning experience for him.”
He added that whereas bodily competitiveness is inspired, abandoning self-discipline crosses a line.
Ulbrich praised how Floyd stepped in and famous that Pearce responded effectively afterward, batting down a cross from quarterback Kirk Cousins and incomes a praise from Cousins later in observe.
Offensive line coach Dwayne Ledford additionally mentioned the camp depth afterward.
“Yeah, we had a couple of crashes today,” Ledford mentioned. “But the thing about these guys — I know this, I know how our locker room, the culture that we have here in this locker room — those guys, they’re going to shake it up. They know they got to get to work together and it’s going to take both of us. It’s kind of like what we said, man, if both sides of the ball are playing hard like that, it’s just going to make us on both sides that much better.”
Atlanta concluded the 2024 season with an 8–9 file beneath head coach Raheem Morris, narrowly lacking the playoffs for a seventh straight yr.
Regardless of a powerful 6–3 begin, their momentum collapsed with losses in six of their closing eight video games—prompting a swap at quarterback that noticed rookie Michael Penix Jr. take over late within the season.
Offensively, Professional Bowl working again Bijan Robinson carried the Falcons with a team-leading 1,456 dashing yards and 14 touchdowns, whereas broad receiver Drake London tallied 1,271 receiving yards and 9 TDs.
Robinson additionally had 431 receiving yards on 61 catches with an extra TD by way of the air.
Their protection struggled, yielding 24.9 factors per recreation, rating close to the underside within the league.
