The second year pro could carve out a role in Atlanta’s outside linebacker group if he’s healthy for the 2025 season.
I wrote about Bralen Trice, forgotten man a few weeks back. My argument was that if he was healthy, Trice’s well-rounded game could be a boon for an outside linebacker group set to debut many new pieces.
The justified response from some Atlanta Falcons fans was “well, do we know he’s healthy?” The answer to that still isn’t a clear cut yes or no, but we did get a welcome update on the second-year pass rusher from Raheem Morris on Tuesday.
Trice was not practicing on the first day of OTAs, and Morris suggested we wouldn’t see him for a bit. However, while noting that Trice is working with a physical therapist and running but isn’t close to full strength just yet, he did say a training camp return was a “realistic goal,” per Atlanta Falcons reporter Terrin Waack. That’s about right given that Trice will be close to a full year removed from the devastating injury that cost him the entire 2024 season.
That’s a little under two months away from where we sit currently, meaning we shouldn’t start the Trice Watch until mid-July at the earliest. If he’s back, Trice is going to be in the mix for snaps with the likes of incumbent Arnold Ebiketie, free agent signing Leonard Floyd, and rookies Jalon Walker and James Pearce. There’s no path to starting-level snaps for him if everyone’s healthy, but Trice’s run defense was one of the reasons to be excited about him coming into the league, and it would not be particularly difficult to envision him picking up early down snaps because of that. He certainly has the potential, given his college pass rushing production and those instincts against the run, to be a key reserve in the team’s outside linebacker rotation.
All that’s ahead of us, but it’s good to know we can pencil in a potential return date for Trice. Now if we can just keep the rest of the roster healthy in the months ahead, the Falcons might be cooking.