The Atlanta Falcons need pass-rush help, and on Monday they took a look at a veteran who knows their head coach well.
Za’Darius Smith, a three-time Pro Bowl edge rusher, worked out for the Falcons, according to ESPN’s Marc Raimondi and the AJC’s Daniel Flick. The visit comes as Atlanta scrambles to shore up a pass rush suddenly short on bodies.
Falcons Work Out Veteran Edge Rusher Za’Darius Smith
The timing is no accident. The Falcons are set to open the season without their two best young edge rushers.
James Pearce Jr., who led the team with 10.5 sacks as a rookie, is suspended for the first eight games. Jalon Walker, the other 2025 first-round pass rusher, tore his ACL earlier this month and will miss the entire season.
With Pearce and Walker out, the Falcons are leaning on a thin group that includes offseason additions Azeez Ojulari and Samson Ebukam plus returning contributor Brandon Dorlus. That left Atlanta hunting for more outside help, and Smith checks a familiar box.
“Smith played under Kevin Stefanski in Cleveland,” Raimondi noted, referencing the two seasons the veteran spent with the Browns while Stefanski was the head coach there.
Flick added the context on Smith’s resume.
“Smith, who turns 34 on Sept. 8, is a three-time Pro Bowler (last in 2022),” Flick wrote, noting the Falcons are “looking for external help in light of James Pearce Jr.’s suspension & Jalon Walker’s injury.”
More Falcons On Heavy: Falcons HC Kevin Stefanski Makes Telling Admission on James Pearce Jr.
Why Za’Darius Smith Makes Sense for the Falcons’ Depleted Pass Rush
Smith has been one of the more productive pass rushers of his era. He has 70.5 career sacks across 11 seasons, with three Pro Bowl nods and a second-team All-Pro selection, and he’s played for the Baltimore Ravens, Green Bay Packers, Minnesota Vikings, Cleveland Browns, Detroit Lions and Philadelphia Eagles.
His best stretch came in Green Bay, where he racked up 26 sacks over the 2019 and 2020 seasons. He added a 10-sack Pro Bowl year in Minnesota in 2022, then 10.5 sacks in two seasons with the Browns under Stefanski, who called him a player who “brings some juice to what we’re doing.”
The catch is where Smith is now. He signed with the Eagles last September but retired just five games into the 2025 season with 1.5 sacks. Philadelphia removed him from the reserve/retired list in June, clearing the way for a comeback, and he worked out for the Browns earlier this week before turning up in Atlanta.
At 34, Smith is no longer an every-down force, but he profiles as exactly the kind of situational, veteran rusher a depleted team can use. He can still push the pocket, he sets the edge well against the run, and he wouldn’t need any introduction to Stefanski’s staff. The coaching familiarity matters for a player trying to ramp up quickly on a compressed timeline, with the regular season less than three weeks away.
Nothing is official yet. A workout is just a workout, and Smith has other suitors. But for a Falcons team staring at half a season without Pearce and a full year without Walker, the fit is easy to see. Atlanta needs pass-rush help, and Smith needs a landing spot. The two sides just took their first real look at each other.
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