- Atlanta Falcons edge rusher Jalon Walker tore his ACL on Tuesday.
- The Falcons set a franchise record with 57 sacks last season, nearly double the 31 they had in 2024.
- Atlanta is the longest price in the NFC South at +375, and its season win total sits at 7.5.
FLOWERY BRANCH, Ga. – Atlanta Falcons edge rusher Jalon Walker has a torn ACL and is out for the 2026 season. The injury takes the No. 15 pick of the 2025 draft off a pass rush coming off the best year in franchise history.
Carted Off Late In A Non-Padded Practice
Walker went down on an 11-on-11 rep late in Tuesday’s session, the sixth practice of Atlanta’s camp and one run without pads. Falcons players took a knee on the field while trainers worked on him, and he was carted off. Head coach Kevin Stefanski, in his first camp in Atlanta, ended the session there.
The Falcons later said that Walker will miss the 2026 season, a huge blow to the Falcons’ pash rush.
What A Record Pass Rush Loses
Atlanta produced 57 sacks in 2025, a single-season franchise record that beat the 55 the team recorded in 1997 and nearly doubled the 31 it managed in 2024, when only one defense in the league finished lower. The pressure underneath the total was the sturdier number. Atlanta pressured quarterbacks on 46.3 percent of dropbacks last season, fourth-highest in the NFL, per NFL Next Gen Stats.
Walker’s rookie line reads modestly against that. He played 15 games with nine starts and finished with 36 tackles, five of them for loss, 5.5 sacks and two forced fumbles. James Pearce Jr., the other edge Atlanta took in the first round of the 2025 draft, led the group with 10.5 sacks.
Sack totals are the noisiest edge-rusher stat year to year, which is why pressure rate carries more weight than the raw count. Walker’s work now falls to a rotation of Samson Ebukam, Cameron Thomas and Azeez Ojulari behind Pearce.
Where The Falcons Already Sat On The Board
Atlanta is the longest price in its own division on legal NFL betting boards, and the 7.5-win total was posted before Walker went down.
| Market | Price |
|---|---|
| Season win total | 7.5, over +115 / under -140 |
| NFC South winner | +375 |
| Make the playoffs | +240, miss -300 |
| Super Bowl LXI | +12500 |
A price on legal sports betting boards is a payout, not a probability. The under at 7.5 wins pays -140, which implies roughly 58 percent, and the two sides of the playoff market, +240 to make it and -300 to miss, imply about 29 percent and 75 percent. The two figures add past 100, and that overlap is the book’s cut. Whether Atlanta’s real chance beats what those prices imply is the whole question.
The +375 on the division sits behind Tampa Bay at +185, New Orleans at +260 and Carolina at +300, and Atlanta’s number on the Super Bowl betting board is one of the longest in the league. Since Walker’s injury, the Falcons odds lengthened from +10000 to +12500 to win Super Bowl 61.
Atlanta opens the season at the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday, Sept. 13, at 1 p.m. ET.
