Arthur Smith is busy assembling his coaching staff, and on Thursday, the new Atlanta Falcons coach made a number of important signings, including his three coordinators.
Smith announced that Dean Pees, Dave Ragone and Marquice Williams will join him in Atlanta as coordinators. He also said that coach Dave Brock of the wide receivers was hired by the previous Falcons technical team.
Both Pees and Ragone were previously linked to Smith in previous reports as possible coordinators. Jason La Canfora of CBS Sports first reported that Pees, a longtime defensive coach who participated in two Super Bowl winning defenses in his career, “will join Smith’s new team in Atlanta in some way”.
Last Friday, ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler tweeted minutes after the Falcons announced Smith that a name “was strongly linked to Arthur Smith’s team when he took over from the Atlanta Falcons: Bears passing game coordinator Dave Ragone. I was told there is a good chance he would become the Smith’s OC after five years in Chicago. “
And, it seems, both reports were accurate.
Pees will take over as the Falcons’ defensive coordinator and Ragone has been named offensive coordinator. During his introductory press conference, however, Smith said he would be the player to call in the attack.
“Let’s take it easy,” said Smith. “We interviewed several people for coordinator and team vacancies and, as I said, we are going to take our time. We want to be adaptable. This is going to be very important here. to be flexible and adaptable, and this is something that we look for schematically as we move forward in this process of hiring coaches. “