The Falcons pass defense was built to hunt quarterbacks. Now Jalon Walker is out, James Pearce Jr. is suspended, and A.J. Terrell Jr. is on injured reserve. Next comes Lamar Jackson.
Atlanta finally found a real pass-rush identity last season, piling up a franchise-record 57 sacks after years of struggling to create pressure. Pearce led the Falcons with 10.5 sacks, Walker supplied speed and versatility off the edge, and Terrell gave Jeff Ulbrich a corner he could trust against top receivers. Two of those pieces will not play against Baltimore, while the third will watch from injured reserve.
That would make any matchup difficult. Jackson makes it a completely different problem. Through Baltimore’s first four games, he has thrown for 967 yards with six touchdowns and one interception. He shredded Tennessee for 222 yards and two scores in one half before leaving with a left ankle injury.
If Jackson plays Sunday night, Atlanta cannot simply rush harder or ask its secondary to cover longer. The Falcons pass defense has to contain him while Derrick Henry threatens the middle and Zay Flowers stretches everything around them. Every answer Baltimore forces from Atlanta creates another question somewhere else.
Atlanta Has Already Shown Three Different Defenses
Three games have produced three very different versions of Atlanta. Pittsburgh threw for 206 yards and managed only 264 total. Carolina followed by carving Atlanta up for 272 passing yards and three touchdowns. Green Bay then reached 311 net passing yards, but that number badly misrepresents how the game unfolded.
The Packers finished with only 17 rushing yards and fell behind 24-7 by the end of the third quarter. At that point, balance disappeared. Jordan Love attempted 53 passes because Green Bay had little choice but to chase the game through the air.
Atlanta could live with that volume because it controlled nearly everything else. Love completed just 28 passes, took a sack and threw a late interception. Green Bay also failed on fourth down in the red zone and had a field goal blocked.
Still, the tape exposed vulnerabilities. Matthew Golden adjusted to a deep ball for a 43-yard gain on third-and-11, while Christian Watson found room after the catch on a 34-yard play. Golden eventually reached 100 receiving yards. Atlanta did not surrender those yards because Love repeatedly solved tight coverage; several came when Green Bay stretched the defense vertically and forced the secondary to defend more grass.
Jackson presents the same challenge with an added layer. He can create the extra time himself.
Atlanta Has to Manufacture Pressure Now
Last year’s Falcons could attack protection schemes with numbers. Ulbrich blitzed at the second-highest rate in the NFL, and Atlanta finished second in the league with those 57 sacks. The approach worked because the Falcons finally had edge players capable of turning simulated pressure into actual disruption.
After years of fielding a toothless pass rush, Atlanta had found its edge terrors in Walker and Pearce. Then the roster losses arrived before the 2026 season could settle into any kind of rhythm. Walker tore his ACL during training camp, while Pearce received an eight-game suspension after leading the team in sacks as a rookie.
Veteran Za’Darius Smith gives Atlanta experience, but replacing Walker and Pearce requires more than swapping names on a depth chart. Ulbrich had no choice but to dial the pressure back and find other ways to bother quarterbacks.
Against Green Bay, Brandon Dorlus, Cameron Thomas and Harold Perkins Jr. offered a workable model. The front affected Love without forcing Atlanta to send extra rushers on every passing down, and Dorlus became especially important because interior pressure creates a different problem for mobile quarterbacks.
Jackson punishes edge rushers who lose discipline. If an end crashes too aggressively inside, he can pull the ball down and attack the vacated sideline. When both rushers fly beyond his depth, he can climb through the middle before the linebackers recover.
Without Walker and Pearce, the Falcons pass defense has to manufacture pressure while protecting those exits. Dorlus and the interior front need to compress the pocket, while Smith and the edge rotation must resist the temptation to hunt sacks at the expense of contain.
Derrick Henry Creates the First Problem
It sounds counterintuitive, but stopping Jackson’s arm actually starts with stopping Derrick Henry’s legs.
Henry forces safeties to care about the line of scrimmage. Linebackers have to step toward downhill action, while edge defenders cannot simply race toward Jackson because Baltimore can hand the ball to a 247-pound back and run directly into the space they leave behind.
That conflict has become even sharper under Baltimore’s new coaching staff. First-year head coach Jesse Minter hired offensive coordinator Declan Doyle to reshape the offense, and one of the most noticeable changes has been putting Jackson under center more often. Jackson has also changed his lead foot to better marry his drop timing with the routes developing around him. Minter described the offense in September as a “pick your poison” problem because it can attack through Jackson, Henry, the tight ends or Flowers.
The first snap of Doyle’s regular-season offense offered a clean example. Jackson started under center, sold play action and rolled left before hitting Flowers for 49 yards. The design made the backfield action look like a run before sending Jackson away from the flow, forcing the defense to sort through Henry, the quarterback and Flowers almost simultaneously.
That is the version Atlanta has to prepare for. Baltimore can show the same backfield picture and arrive at several different answers.
If Jessie Bates III starts creeping toward the box, the Ravens gain room behind him. Flowers becomes more dangerous on posts, deep crossers and overs. Play-action becomes harder to diagnose because linebackers have to honor Henry before opening into their drops.
Against Tennessee, Baltimore demonstrated the conflict again. Henry rushed for 73 yards and a touchdown, while Flowers caught eight passes for 118 yards and a score. Jackson threw for 222 yards before halftime and helped the Ravens build a 24-7 lead before his ankle injury.
Atlanta cannot sell out against either threat. Pack the box and Baltimore can throw behind it. Sit in lighter personnel and Henry can force the defense to tackle him repeatedly. Lose contain while trying to handle both, and Jackson gives Baltimore another option without even needing the original play to work.
Lamar Jackson Turns Good Coverage Into Bad Football
Most quarterbacks punish coverage busts. Jackson can punish a defense even when the original coverage works.
A corner may stay attached through the first route, while the safety holds his proper depth and the linebacker takes away the crossing window. If Jackson slips outside the pocket three seconds later, every defender suddenly faces a second assignment.
Flowers can flatten his route toward open space. A tight end can work back toward the sideline. Defensive backs then have to decide whether to stay attached or attack Jackson before he crosses the line.
Those extended snaps create some of the hardest decisions in football, especially for a secondary playing without Terrell. Atlanta cannot send three defenders toward Jackson every time he breaks contain because someone still has to carry Flowers and protect the middle of the field.
The Falcons pass defense will handle those moments only if the rush and coverage stay connected. One defender chasing Jackson too early can free a receiver, while a corner staring into the backfield can lose his man. Jackson’s gift is forcing several defenders to make the correct decision for longer than they normally would.
A.J. Terrell’s Absence Changes the Back End
Terrell’s groin injury removes Atlanta’s best security blanket. He left the Carolina game in the first quarter and later landed on injured reserve, guaranteeing at least a four-game absence.
C.J. Henderson has moved into the starting lineup opposite Mike Hughes, while rookie Avieon Terrell and Billy Bowman Jr. provide additional flexibility. That group responded well enough against Green Bay, with Henderson competing at the catch point and Xavier Watts intercepting Love.
Yet the Packers also showed how opponents can test Atlanta without A.J. Terrell. Golden’s 43-yard reception required him to adjust downfield, while Watson repeatedly found room underneath and after the catch. Baltimore can attack those same stress points with a quarterback who keeps plays alive far longer than Love usually does.
Flowers does not need Jackson to stand in the pocket and deliver on schedule. He can uncover after the play breaks down, forcing Henderson, Hughes and the safeties to cover through the quarterback’s second movement. Atlanta’s secondary therefore needs patience as much as aggression.
That makes four-man pressure especially valuable. If the front can squeeze Jackson without sacrificing contain, seven defenders remain available to close the throwing windows behind it.
Third Down Is Where Atlanta Can Win This
Third-and-7 usually tells a defense something useful about the offense. Against Jackson, it tells Atlanta much less.
Man coverage can open scrambling lanes once defensive backs turn away from the quarterback. Soft zone gives Baltimore room underneath. Heavy pressure may create a free rusher, but it also leaves fewer defenders available once Jackson escapes.
Atlanta has allowed opponents to convert 15 of 42 third downs, a 35.7 percent rate that gives Ulbrich something positive to build around. The challenge lies in preserving that efficiency against a quarterback who can transform third-and-long into a running down.
The Falcons can bluff pressure with Perkins near the line before dropping him underneath. Bates can show a two-high shell and rotate late. Smith can attack inside on one snap, then play contain on the next. Those changes make Jackson process the coverage again after the snap rather than handing him the answer beforehand.
For the Falcons pass defense, disguise only matters if the tackling holds up behind it. A seven-yard Jackson scramble on third-and-8 should lead to fourth down, not another 20 yards because the first defender arrives out of control. The same applies to Flowers underneath: rally, finish the tackle and make Baltimore earn the next snap.
Jackson’s Ankle Changes the Week but Not the Plan
Jackson’s health hangs over every part of the matchup. He injured his left ankle on a sack late in the first half against Tennessee and never returned.
Minter now manages that uncertainty in his first season replacing John Harbaugh. Jackson entered the week considered day-to-day, giving Atlanta another variable to prepare for without allowing it to assume anything about his mobility.
If he starts, the Falcons have to respect every designed quarterback run until Baltimore removes those plays itself. Doyle has kept that element available because Jackson changes the blocking arithmetic whenever he becomes an option to carry the ball.
Baltimore’s coaches have been explicit about that advantage. Their run game can move between zone, gap and perimeter concepts, while Jackson provides the “plus-one” element that forces the defense to account for a ball carrier it cannot handle with normal blocking numbers.
The ankle may reduce how often Baltimore wants to expose him to hits, but Atlanta cannot build its plan around that possibility. Jackson does not need 12 carries to alter a defense. One early scramble can slow an edge rusher, while one keeper can make a linebacker hesitate on the next play-action fake.
Green Bay Gave Atlanta a Usable Blueprint
The Falcons should not copy their Green Bay plan snap for snap. They should copy the patience behind it.
Atlanta held the Packers to nine rushing attempts and forced Love into 53 throws, but the game script mattered. Green Bay spent much of the second half trailing by multiple scores, allowing the Falcons to anticipate pass-heavy possessions without sacrificing their defensive structure.
Baltimore will work much harder to avoid that situation. Henry gives the Ravens a way to maintain balance, while Jackson prevents Atlanta from treating obvious passing downs as truly obvious. Flowers can punish a secondary that spends too much attention on the quarterback.
The central lesson still carries over. The Falcons pass defense does not need a sack every third play. It needs to win first down, hold Baltimore to a modest gain on second down and reach third-and-medium without surrendering an explosive play.
That approach demands patience from players who naturally want to attack. An edge rusher may have to settle for forcing Jackson back inside instead of chasing him. A safety may need to concede a six-yard completion rather than jumping a route and exposing the post behind him. Over four quarters, those small decisions can matter more than one spectacular pressure.
Sunday Night Will Show How Much Atlanta’s Defense Can Absorb
Atlanta spent last season discovering what its defense looked like with legitimate pass-rush talent. This year has already forced a harder question: what happens when several pieces of that plan disappear at once?
Walker will not return this season. Pearce remains suspended. Terrell cannot erase one side of the field against Flowers. That leaves Dorlus, Smith, Henderson, Hughes, Watts, Bates and the rest of the unit trying to prove Atlanta’s improvement extends beyond its most recognizable names.
The Falcons pass defense does not need to make Jackson look ordinary. Few defenses manage that. Instead, Atlanta has to keep the game from becoming easy for him.
Stopping Henry early would protect the safeties from constant run conflicts. Keeping Jackson inside the pocket would allow the secondary to defend one play instead of two. Strong tackling could turn seven-yard completions into manageable downs rather than explosive gains.
None of those goals sounds dramatic, and that is precisely the point. Atlanta’s best route through this matchup depends less on highlight plays than on stacking disciplined snaps until Baltimore becomes impatient.
Jackson can still erase ten good plays with one escape. Minter and Doyle have made that threat harder to isolate by putting more of Baltimore’s offense behind similar run and play-action pictures. Atlanta cannot solve every branch of that decision tree before the snap.
What it can do is make Baltimore keep choosing.
For a depleted defense facing one of football’s hardest quarterbacks to contain, forcing that extra decision may be the only math that works.
READ MORE: Lamar Jackson: The Most Dangerous Dual Threat QB in NFL History
FAQs
Q1. Why is the Falcons pass defense shorthanded against Lamar Jackson?
Atlanta is missing major pieces. Jalon Walker is out for the season, James Pearce Jr. is suspended, and A.J. Terrell Jr. is on injured reserve.
Q2. Why does Derrick Henry make Lamar Jackson harder to defend?
Henry forces linebackers and safeties toward the line. That creates more room for Jackson, Zay Flowers and Baltimore’s play-action passing game.
Q3. How can Atlanta contain Lamar Jackson?
Atlanta must maintain disciplined rush lanes, tackle well and pressure Jackson without opening escape routes. Interior pressure could become especially valuable.
Q4. What changed in Baltimore’s offense under Declan Doyle?
Baltimore uses Jackson under center more often and leans on play action and misdirection. Those looks make Henry and Jackson harder to diagnose.
Q5. Will Lamar Jackson play against the Falcons?
Jackson entered the week day-to-day after injuring his left ankle against Tennessee. Baltimore had not ruled him out when the article was prepared.
