Rookie James Pearce Jr’s presence was certainly being felt during the first week of the Atlanta Falcons’ preseason training camp in Flowery Branch, but ‘making his mark’ wasn’t always appreciated by his new team-mates.

Head coach Raheem Morris, defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich and offensive line coach Dwayne Ledford were forced to intervene in a series of scuffles that broke out on Sunday, with Pearce more often than not at the heart of them.

The rookie was heavily involved in all aspects of the day, from rushing the passer or dropping in coverage, and the skirmishes with his team-mates only underlined the intensity with which he was practicing.

Although it took six days for his players to overstep Morris’ plea for no fights in camp, the first kicked off when edge rusher Pearce and center Ryan Neuzil squared up, with back-up arriving from both sides of the line of scrimmage, and tempers flared almost immediately after calm was restored, when Pearce and right tackle Kaleb McGary went at it, with Leonard Floyd and Matthew Bergeron again wading in.

Things settled down after Morris addressed the entire roster and, save for one further incident in the following session, there were no further outbreaks — much to Ulbrich’s relief.

“We’re trying to develop a culture, a style of play, for sure,” then DC told the Falcons’ official website. “Part of that is the violence [with] which we play — aggression, urgency and all that. Today, at times, it went a little too far, [and] we got to learn how to manage that.

“The offense is going to get agitated, especially when you’re playing really good defense, so you got to anticipate punches being thrown, things being said, people being pushed. [But] in those moments, you got to thrive, not retaliate. Don’t throw the punch. Don’t retaliate. The more we can take it there and not retaliate and celebrate it, I think that’s when you create that style of play. It’s a good lesson to be learned today.”