An injury wiped out his rookie season, but Trice is still very much in the team’s plans.
Through zero fault of his own, Bralen Trice is not the first name that springs to mind in the Atlanta Falcons EDGE group. There’s the fresh luster of rookies Jalon Walker and James Pearce Jr., for one, and the intrigue around a high-priced, high-produced veteran in Leonard Floyd and a contract year player looking to make the leap in Arnold Ebiketie. When you have that group, especially when Trice missed the entire 2024 season owing to a devastating summer injury, he’s no a longer a name that generates buzz the way he did after the Falcons picked him up in the third round a year ago.
But Trice is no afterthought. The first outside linebacker taken under Raheem Morris was a player the Falcons were counting on last year, as is evidenced by the trade for Matthew Judon once they lost him. The same qualities that recommended Trice to Atlanta originally—his production in college, his well-rounded game, and his character—figure to make him a prominent long-term piece of a group where Floyd and Ebiketie may not return after 2025. We ought to not forget about him.
Why? There are a few good reasons:
- Trice’s run defense was one of the reasons to be excited about him as a rookie, given that first-year pass rushers are rarely as productive in terms of pressure and sacks as you’d like them to be. That run defense is still a good reason to be excited about him, because while Jalon Walker is a capable player against the run who could be terrific in time, nobody else in this EDGE group profiles to be stellar in 2025. That includes Floyd, whose utility as a run defender is fading, and Pearce, who needs work based on what his run defense looked like in college. The Falcons may well get creative and use jumbo edge players like Zach Harrison and Brandon Dorlus on earlier downs, but Trice’s ability should also get him on the field on earlier downs.
- He was a productive college pass rusher, and new defensive line coach Nate Ollie has talked about how he and outside linebackers coach Jacquies Smith plan to bring waves of pressure with a rotation of fresh, capable players. Raheem Morris talked about how confident the team is in Trice and how much his injury changed the team’s plans, and while Trice came to the NFL with scouting reports highlighting his limitations in fluidity and explosiveness, he didn’t lead the nation in pressures in 2024 by accident. A relentless, strong defender who uses his hands well, Trice isn’t going to be a player the Falcons consistently want coming off the edge on obvious passing downs, but should be a fixture rotating in on early downs given his two-way skillset.
- Trice is a versatile player, and versatility is a calling card for players in this Raheem Morris/Jeff Ulbrich defense. He has the coverage acumen and movement skills to credibly carry running backs and tight ends on short routes, the run defense ability to stay on the field on all three downs, and the size and ruggedness to put his hand in the dirt in a pinch if the Falcons need him to. Trice doesn’t figure to be a standout defender in any one dimension aside from maybe run defense, but the fact that he can do everything reasonably well, may be able to move around a bit, and plays with a constant high level of effort will make him a valuable member of the rotation.
Trice is no longer the new and shiny thing in this outside linebacker group, but a team that rotates as heavily as the Falcons figure to need well-rounded, smart players who can do multiple things well, and a healthy Trice very much fits the bill. If he’s fully recovered this summer and fall, I think we’ll see Trice serving as a glue guy and invaluable player for a Falcons defense that hopes to be far better in 2025.