Josh Heupel leaves no doubt how he feels about Tennessee Vols edge rusher James Pearce amid rumblings of 'character concerns'
Over the last month, there have been numerous media outlets that have suggested that NFL teams have concerns about Tennessee Vols edge rusher James Pearce's character. Pearce is widely viewed as a first-round talent, but he could fall to the second round due to those "character concerns" (which were never a public issue during Pearce's […]
Over the last month, there have been numerous media outlets that have suggested that NFL teams have concerns about Tennessee Vols edge rusher James Pearce's character.
Pearce is widely viewed as a first-round talent, but he could fall to the second round due to those "character concerns" (which were never a public issue during Pearce's time at Tennessee).
"We’ll see what happens, but there has been a lot of scouting buzz about Pearce’s lack of coachability during his time at Tennessee, to a point where some aren’t sure he’ll go in the first or second round," wrote The Athletic's Nick Baumgardner this week. "Could that be bluster, to a degree? Sure. Pearce’s talent is immense, but evaluators have concerns."
Vols head coach Josh Heupel was asked on Tuesday at Tennessee's Pro Day about Pearce's intelligence and growth during his time at UT.
"I think the versatility of what we do defensively, four-down, three-down, him playing in the boundary, to the field, off the ball as a linebacker, he's been exposed to all of those things," said Heupel. "James is extremely bright, retains information extremely quickly. That's important at the next level, the versatility that he has. But he's been able to, in the meetings at the combine, yesterday, he's got a couple more, all of those go into a franchise ultimately drafting a player and the success of the player at the next level.
"And you can look a couple years in front of him at a guy like Byron Young's success that he's had. James has all those traits mentally to be able to have a really smooth transition to the next level. I've gotten a lot of that feedback back while he was at the combine from head coaches, NFL personnel people, [and] certainly here over the last day and a half."
"Young men, when they come into our building, they're at varying levels of maturity, it's our job to accelerate them as fast as we can," continued Heupel. "James has done a really good job. The football understanding grew really quickly and has continued to grow. Developing as a man, as a person, he's done a really good job of continuing that, too."
It doesn't sound like Heupel has any reservations about endorsing Pearce to NFL teams. And that means something — the last thing college coaches want to do is ruin trust with connections in the NFL. So these aren't empty words from Heupel about Pearce.
There's a good chance that the noise surrounding Pearce is simply due to NFL teams trying to manipulate the draft with the hope that the former Tennessee standout will fall to the second round.
