Arizona Cardinals have top-30 meeting with Tennessee pass rusher James Pearce Jr.
Arizona Cardinals have top-30 meeting with Tennessee pass rusher James Pearce Jr. Pearce had 17.5 sacks and 28 tackles for loss over his final two seasons at Tennessee.
The NFL draft is weeks away and the Arizona Cardinals are preparing for the 2025 NFL draft and part of that process is bringing in up to 30 player prospects for official visits at the team facility, meeting extensively with them and sometimes even eating dinner. The Cardinals have held some such visits already and have some visits planned with some big names.
According to NFL Network's Mike Garafolo, appearing on PHNX Cardinals podcast, one guy coming in is Tennessee pass rusher James Pearce Jr.
That meeting had not happened at the time of the interview.
Pearce played three seasons for Tennessee and led the SEC with 10 sacks in 2023 and had 15 tackles for loss. In 2024, he followed that up with 7.5 sacks and 13 tackles for loss.
He has all the physical traits to be great. He is 6-foot-5 and 245 pounds with nearly 33-inch arms and he moves very well. He ran the 40 at the combine in 4.47 seconds and posted a 31-inch vertical leap and 123-inch broad jump.
He is projected to go as high as the middle of the first round, which is where the Cardinals have their first selection — No. 16 overall.
The Cardinals have met or will meet with other potential first-round edge rushers like Texas A&M's Shemar Stewart, Georgia's Jalon Walker and Georgia's Mykel Williams.
Get more Cardinals and NFL coverage from Cards Wire's Jess Root and others by listening to the latest on the Rise Up, See Red podcast. Subscribe on Spotify, YouTube or Apple podcasts.
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