CFB Zeitgeist DL Score
Awaiting
James Pearce Jr.
Limited signal — not enough coverage for a story yet.
Where He Ended Up · NFL
AtlantaEntering 2nd NFL season
#26Rd 1 · Pick 26
AtlantaEntering 2nd NFL season
DL · TENNESSEE · SEC
James Pearce Jr.
- 3
- #27
- 6-5 | 243 lb
- Charlotte, NC
Heisman Heat
#1101
<1% win probability
Fan Belief
Awaiting
Player-specific FI not yet ingested. Falls back to team mood below.
Respect Gap
Awaiting
Coming online with player-level FI.
Reality Gap
Awaiting
Coming online with player-level FI.
ACCOLADE PROBABILITY
Heisman
<1%
TOP DEFENSE AWARD
Nagurski
—
CONSENSUS
All-American
—
Player Standing · 17 rungs
Tier 1 · 2-deepR03 · Backup
Backup. On the two-deep, pushing for snaps.
Not on team2-deepStarterRecognizedEliteApex
Career arc · Season-by-season Standing
3 seasons on the ladder
2022
Tennessee · DL
—
★
2023
Tennessee · DL
R09 · All-Conference HM / 2nd team
Recognized
2024
Tennessee · DL
R09 · All-Conference HM / 2nd team
Recognized
NFL Draft 2025 · Rd 1, Pick 26 · #26 overall · Atlanta
Career Arc
HS
Recruit
★★★★
CFB
College
Tennessee
NFL
NFL Draft
R1 · #26
Identity & Role
The durable bio layer: position, size, hometown, and roster role.
Recruiting Pedigree
How big the prospect was before college, and whether the later career arc beat that expectation.
| Class | Profile | Context |
|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 4-star | 0.9205 | No. 202 recruit | HighSchool | Tennessee |
Transfer Arc
Portal movement changes role, context, and perception. This keeps that path in one place.
| Season | Move | Context |
|---|---|---|
| No transfer portal moves on file for this player. | ||
Heisman Lens · 2024 Season · Final
Where the player landed at the end of the listed season — final nowcast rank, win/finalist/ballot probabilities, and the cleanest official Heisman placement on file.
HIGH CONFIDENCE· through week 16Heisman Futures
Not yet listed on major futures markets.
No achievements unlocked yet this season.
Selector Grid · 2025
AP—
FWAA—
AFCA—
WCFF—
SN—
SI—
Selector recognition fills in once the major honors lists (AP, FWAA, AFCA, Walter Camp, Sporting News, SI) are scraped and ingested.
NIL · Recruiting · NFL Draft
Market value, pedigree & pro outcome
Recruit stars
★★★★☆
to Tennessee
Composite
0.9205
#202 national
NFL Draft
2025 · Rd 1, Pick 26
#26 overall · Atlanta
Today’s Hot-Take
The Hot-Take engine fires when this player’s percentile profile crosses a defensible threshold (top 10% in a cohort, 100+ snap sample). When it’s quiet, the model is honoring its “must be defensible” rule.
Anti-Take
PENDINGThe contrarian read fires when the rules-engine detects a stat that complicates the Hot-Take. Quiet here means the model hasn’t found a defensible counter yet — not that one doesn’t exist.
The Room on James Pearce Jr.
Fan sentiment · Awaiting signal
The Room reads fan conversation around a player — who’s talking, what they believe, and how that shifts. It publishes once weekly volume rebuilds; for most players that’s in-season, when game-week chatter spikes.
Cohort divergence map
Cohort divergence reads how different fanbases talk about this player. Returns once weekly mentions clear the publish floor.
Rival Radar
How rival fanbases talk about James Pearce Jr.
No rival-bucket mentions in the current season.
Signature Story
Awaiting candidate metric
He hasn't written his page yet — we'll start filling it in when there are enough snaps to rank against his peers.
Signature Moment
No signature moment on the ledger yet.
Returns once this player puts together a multi-game body of work — single-game flashes alone don't clear the bar.
Scenario Explorer
Available for players with a qualifying signature metric (passing yards, rushing yards, receiving yards, sacks, etc.). The slider projects how a season finishes if the current pace holds.
Why this is a rare defensive case
The fast read on the thing that makes this player more than a generic stat line.
James Pearce Jr. is trying to climb the steepest award hill in college football: a defensive candidacy. The hook is the disruption profile on Tennessee's defense, with 7.5 sacks, 13.0 tackles for loss, and -- interceptions through the current loaded season. For a defender, the question is never just production; it is whether elite disruption and team context can become nationally undeniable.
2024 Season · Final
Traditional stats first. Advanced context underneath.
Last season
DEF season snapshot
2024 season snapshot | final
2024 season snapshot | finalData: CFBD player stats + local Heisman modelPeer context: same position + same level
Player identity What kind of player is this?
30-second read
What kind of player is this?
High-disruption defender | High-volume tackler against FBS defenders.
2024 Season · Final
2024 season snapshot | final
Tackling & Disruption
TOT
38 80th
SOLO
23 82nd
TFL
13.0 99th
SACK
7.5 99th
QBH
10 99th
Coverage & Takeaways
PD
1 43rd
Game Log
Week-by-week box
No per-game rows for this season yet — the table fills in as box scores arrive.
Season-by-season tables Career rows + per-season box score
Traditional history
Traditional Stats
Season rows up top, career context at the bottom.
Season context · Team result + system
2022Tennessee11-2HC: Josh Heupel · Run-leaning
2023Tennessee9-4HC: Josh Heupel · Run-leaning
2024Tennessee10-3HC: Josh Heupel · Run-heavy, fast tempo
Advanced layer Usage, value, and context
Advanced metrics second
Advanced Metrics
Usage, value, and opponent-adjusted context.
TFL, sacks, and QB hurries are grouped together because defensive Heisman cases are usually built on visible havoc, not on tackle counts alone.
Pass breakups, interceptions, and forced fumbles matter because national awards voters respond to plays that change possessions and highlight reels.
Every percentile is compared against players at the same position and level, so an FBS quarterback is judged against FBS quarterbacks, not the whole sport.
The top tables stick to the stats fans already know from broadcasts and box scores. Advanced context is pushed underneath instead of replacing the basics.
Open full stat explorer
| Group | Metric | Value | Rank | Pct | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Defense | Total tackles | 38 | #976/4942 | 80th pct | Volumevs FBS DEF |
| Defense | TFL | 13.0 | #42/4972 | 99th pct | Disruptionvs FBS DEF |
| Defense | Sacks | 7.5 | #34/4972 | 99th pct | Disruptionvs FBS DEF |
| Defense | Pass breakups | 1 | #1241/2184 | 43rd pct | Coveragevs FBS DEF |
| Defense | QB hurries | 10 | #19/1878 | 99th pct | Disruptionvs FBS DEF |
| Defense | Solo tackles | 23 | #839/4584 | 82nd pct | Volumevs FBS DEF |
| Defense | Fumbles recovered | 1 | #103/736 | 86th pct | Takeawaysvs FBS DEF |
| Ball Security | Fumbles lost | 0 | #1/773 | 100th pct | Turnoversvs FBS DEF |
Player Standing
Universal 17-step ladder. Tier pills below; accolade streams nested.
AWAITING CLASSIFICATION
On-team2-deepStartingRecognizedEliteApex
AWAITING CLASSIFICATION · Rung None of 16
Why he’s here
Standing classification populates when honors, Heisman, and roster signals all align.
What moves him up
What moves him down
Accolade streams
Status—Awaiting tracker
The Lombardi award tracker integrates per-week probability once a dedicated scraper for this award lands. Confirmed past winners and finalists for this player will surface here.
Splits
Per-game splits
Splits fill in once box scores from at least three games land for this season.
Advanced Savant · DL · 2024
Percentile Card
Advanced opponent-adjusted percentile bars are coming soon for this player.
P4G5All FBS
Advanced Savant
Opponent-adjusted advanced metrics with a cohort filter.
Advanced opponent-adjusted metrics are coming soon for this player. Selected cohort: P4.
Supporting Cast · Scheme
Staff and system around the player
Head Coach
Josh Heupel
Pass share
47.3%
437 pass / 486 run
Plays / game
71.0
13 games
OL sack rate (allowed)
5.4%
334 dropbacks · PBP
Scheme: Balanced.
Coaching Lineage · 2022–2024
1 coach2022
Josh Heupel
Tennessee
2023
Josh Heupel
Tennessee
2024
Josh Heupel
Tennessee
Played his entire career under Josh Heupel.
Bio · Recruiting · Transfer · Roster
Off-field context — switch tabs to drill into recruit profile, transfer arc, or roster timeline.
HometownCharlotte, NC
Height6'5"
Weight243 lb
Class3
PositionDL
Jersey27
No fields populated yet.
No fields populated yet.
Current teamTennessee
ConferenceSEC
Joined2024
Career arc3 season(s)
Trophy Case · Confirmed honors
What the selectors said
🎖
ALL-CONFERENCE
All-Conf mention (2024)
All-SEC
Trophy Case · Detail
Every honor on the ledger, broken out by stream and selector.
2 all-conference honors
Conference-level recognition helps anchor whether a player is merely statistically loud or actually viewed as elite within his competitive lane.
Honors Timeline
Season-end distinction and week-by-week recognition on one timeline.
| Season | Honor | Scope | Team / Selector | Context |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | All-SEC | all_conference | Tennessee | SEC | DL |
| 2023 | All-SEC | all_conference | Tennessee | SEC | DL |
Heisman By Year
Modeled rank and official finish by season.
Roster Timeline
Team, conference, and class by season.