Nearly 3 Years Later, Trice Still Trying to Launch NFL Career

Bralen Trice never could have imagined he would go 30 months and counting without playing in a full-fledged football game.

Yet that's been the fate for the former University of Washington edge rusher who last appeared in the College Football Playoff national championship outing against the Michigan Wolverines in Houston -- in January 2024.

He had knee injuries wipe out each of his NFL seasons for the Atlanta Falcons, for whom he was a third-round draft pick.

He's been gone from the game so long that quarterback Michael Penix Jr., his UW and Falcons teammate, suffered a knee injury and recovered from it in half that time.

He's been absent from football for such an extended time he went from college kid to a married man trying to bring home a family paycheck.

“When the game has been taken away from you for so long, it’s like, ‘Now what?' " Falcons outside linebackers coach John Timu, a former UW linebacker, told Atlanta Falcons on SI. "But he’s in a good space,”

"He Looks Phenomenal" - #Falcons OLB Coach John Timu hoping connection with Bralen Trice pays off this year

via @3peatgee https://t.co/iODQbvWKd9
— Atlanta Falcons On SI (@FalconsSI) June 13, 2026

Of all of those UW players who won 14 of 15 games and made the run to the national title game, the 6-foot-4, 274-pound Trice has been the most hard-luck guy.

In Montlake, he looked indestructible for three seasons while piling up 101 career tackles, which included 28.5 tackles for loss and 18 sacks.

He had a 72-yard fumble return for a touchdown against Arkansas State in 2021. He was named Defensive MVP of the 2022 Alamo Bowl and the 2024 Sugar Bowl, both times against Texas. He was twice picked as a first-team All-Pac-12 selection and earned third-team All-America honors.

Bralen Trice celebrates a sack in the 2024 Sugar Bowl against Texas. | Sara Diggins / USA TODAY NETWORK

Passing up his final season of eligibility, Trice was supposed to be rewarded handsomely with an NFL career and seemed to be in an ideal situation when he joined Atlanta.

Jimmy Lake, his UW head coach in 2021, was the Falcons' defensive coordinator for his rookie season before getting fired at the end of it.

Yet Trice tore the ACL in his left knee during the Falcons' 2024 exhibition opener and re-injured it 12 months later in training camp.

As he tries to launch his pro football career in a lasting manner, he's surrounded by one-time Huskies, who include Penix, rookie defensive tackle Anterio Thompson and Timu, the latter a UW linebacker in 2012-14 who joined the Atlanta franchise two months before Trice was drafted.

Recently, Trice took part in the Falcons’ organized team activities, or OTAs, in a limited capacity while he prepares for another NFL comeback, hoping this one has legs. Sound legs.

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