How Gervon Dexter Sr. fits Falcons’ vision in remodeled defensive line

FLOWERY BRANCH — Falcons general manager Ian Cunningham is surrounded by newness. New team. New job. New city. New responsibilities. There’s an underlying new attached to his move from Chicago to Atlanta, too.

“This is kind of new for me just being in Chicago the last few years, but it feels like every player you look at is from Georgia,” Cunningham said Wednesday in a news conference, “and it plays to our benefit, too.”

But Cunningham’s latest splash — trading for defensive tackle Gervon Dexter Sr. — came with a bit of help from his previous roots.

The Bears drafted Dexter in the third round in 2023, a decision reached with help from Cunningham, then in his first year as the Bears’ assistant general manager. By and large, Cunningham and Dexter grew to know Chicago together.

Human nature, Cunningham said, is to gravitate toward the known over the unknown. Past relationships matter. And when the Falcons decided their front seven — wounded by a season-ending injury to Jalon Walker and eight-game suspension for James Pearce Jr. — needed reinforcements, Cunningham relied on his past.

He called Bears general manager Ryan Poles, his former boss. They agreed on a package, and on Aug. 30, the Falcons sent cornerback Clark Phillips III and a 2027 fifth-round pick to the Bears in exchange for Dexter.

Dexter, who stands 6-foot-6 and 326 pounds, is the tallest and heaviest player on the Falcons’ defense — and Cunningham said the 24-year-old is still growing into his body.

“Big, strong, powerful, explosive,” Cunningham said Wednesday about Dexter. “He’s grown. I’ve had a chance to see him grow as a man. Having his son, having his daughter — he’s a family man, and for him to be 24 years old, and to be that mature, and care about the game of football and his teammates the way he does, I’m excited.

“We’re excited to be able to get a player like him in the building to help us continue to grow on defense and overall with our team.”

Falcons general manager Ian Cunningham, shown here during his introductory news conference in February, is surrounded by newness. But his latest splash came with a bit of help from his previous roots. (Jason Getz/AJC)

A 3-star basketball recruit at one point in high school, Dexter is still young in terms of football experience, Cunningham said. That adds to his upside. The Bears saw similar intrigue in 2023 and spent a second-round pick to acquire his services.

Dexter flashed as a rookie, collecting 2½ sacks and 12 quarterback hits across 17 games with one start. He stepped into a large role in 2024, starting all 15 appearances and posting five sacks, four tackles for loss and 19 quarterback hits.

In 2025, Dexter set career-highs with six sacks and six tackles for loss. He added 11 quarterback hits and, according to Pro Football Focus, 38 total pressures, which ranked 19th among all defensive tackles last season.

Through his first three NFL seasons, Dexter owns 13½ sacks, tied for the ninth most in his draft class and fourth most at his position.

Run defense has been a concern. Pro Football Focus graded Dexter’s run-stopping a 44, which put him 107th among 134 qualified defensive tackles. But the Falcons are betting on his size, ceiling and character, and Cunningham, an avid connoisseur of stockpiling draft picks, didn’t mind parting ways with a Day 3 selection to land his services.

The Falcons believe they’ll get a fifth-round compensatory pick after losing linebacker Kaden Elliss to the New Orleans Saints in free agency. That slot, essentially, replaces the selection they dealt to the Bears.

And Dexter alone is worth the investment, the team believes.

“We always do value draft picks, and we value good players,” Cunningham said. “We believe that we’ll get some comp picks, so you take that into account as well. When you can get a player of Gervon’s caliber for the price that we paid, we felt that it was in the best interest of us to do that.”

The Falcons return only two defensive tackles from last season — Brandon Dorlus and LaCale London — and a meager 28.1% of their production from a franchise-record pass rush, which posted 57 sacks. Dorlus had 8½ sacks. London contributed five. The only other returners currently on the 53-man roster who pitched in were defensive back Billy Bowman Jr. (1½ sacks) and linebacker Divine Deablo (one).

Cunningham, however, likes the look of the Falcons’ retooled defensive line. Dexter has already started practicing with the team, and he took snaps next to 6-foot-5, 306-pound defensive tackle Maason Smith, which gives the Falcons perhaps the tallest, longest interior tandem in the NFL.

“Him and ‘Maas’ together, it’s pretty cool to see,” Cunningham said.

The Falcons entered this offseason with a clear vision for how they wanted to reshape their defensive line. They wanted big, powerful, rugged, explosive and violent players to fit defensive line coach Nate Ollie’s attack-style front.

When he arrived in Atlanta this spring, Cunningham didn’t fixate on matching last season’s sack total. The final tally matters, but so does disruption — and, ultimately, the Falcons care more about a different number: wins and losses, no matter how they come.

“We look at it, we’re trying to win games, right?” Cunningham said. “And if that’s 57 sacks, if it’s less than that, the main goal is to win games, to build this team, to help these guys, to create competition on the field. And then to help develop and hopefully retain some of these guys moving forward so we can continue to get better.”

Dexter is entering the final year of his rookie contract. If nothing else, he’s a short-term bonus for a defense that has only two other players above 300 pounds, and his pass-rushing pedigree and ascending profile makes him an intriguing bet.

Under Cunningham, the Falcons have preached the idea of draft, develop and retain. Albeit in Chicago, Cunningham helped check the first two boxes with Dexter. Now, he has a chance to finish the three-pronged mission in Atlanta.

The Falcons aren’t committing to a long-term extension with Dexter, Cunningham said, but if he delivers the caliber of season the organization believes possible, retention figures to be atop next offseason’s priority list.