The Atlanta Falcons and free agent pass rusher Za’Darius Smith have come to terms on a 1 year deal that will see him earn $6M in 2026 the team announced.
Smith played last season with the Philadelphia Eagles, seeing limited action in 5 games with the NFC East franchise. The 33 year old recorded 10 tackles, 1.5 sacks, and 3 QB hits as a rotational piece for the club. He’ll now join a Falcons squad that’s in desperate need of a pass rusher, and is likely to see regular snaps in Atlanta following Jalon Walker’s injury, and James Pearce Jr.’s suspension.
Walker tore his ACL in practice earlier this summer and will miss the entirety of the 2026 NFL campaign. Meanwhile, Pearce will be suspended for the first 8 games of the season due to a violation of the league’s personal conduct policy stemming from a domestic violence related arrest back in February.
A 4th round pick by the Baltimore Ravens back in 2015, the veteran defender had previously been linked to the Cleveland Browns this offseason. A club he had played for during the 2023 and 2024 seasons. However, the Falcons made a late push to get a deal done, leaning on the fact that Smith and new Falcons head coach Kevin Stefanski had previous experience together from that same period in Cleveland to get a contract finalized.
The 3x Pro Bowler will add some leadership to a group of largely unproven players in Atlanta who will hope to piece together an effective pass rush by committee approach in the early going. Smith will join Samson Ebukam, Azeez Ojulari, and Cameron Thomas who all signed 1 year deals this offseason. As well as Bralen Trice who will be eager to get back onto the field after suffering back-to-back ACL tears which cost him the last two seasons.
The Falcons set a franchise record with 57 sacks last season, but will sorely miss Walker (5.5 sacks) and Pearce (10.5 sacks) who had begun to form a dynamic 1-2 punch along the defensive front.
Over the course of his NFL career, Smith has had stops in Baltimore, Green Bay, Minnesota, Cleveland, Detroit, Philadelphia and now Atlanta. The Falcons will look to get Smith some game reps this coming Saturday when they play their 2nd preseason game against the Indianapolis Colts.
Photo: Erik Drost. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.