With the new Atlanta Falcons coach, Arthur Smith, starting to assemble his team, he is expected to hire his own employees to fill various assistant positions.
On Wednesday, we received the news that some assistants from Dan Quinn’s team will not remain on Smith’s coach list, including some big names like offensive coordinator Dirk Koetter and offensive line coach Chris Morgan.
Falcons coach Arthur Smith let OL coach Chris Morgan go today, I was told. Morgan was initially brought to Atlanta by Kyle Shanahan – so he is an interesting name with this scheme popping up everywhere.
– Albert Breer (@AlbertBreer) January 20, 2021
D. Orlando Ledbetter of AJC also noted that defensive assistant coach Aden Durde will join Quinn in Atlanta to train the Dallas defensive line.
Obviously, Smith’s hiring meant that Koetter wasn’t writing anything, and being hired was always an incredible possibility. Morgan, however, is noteworthy as he has been with the team since 2015 and was one of the only remnants of Kyle Shanahan’s original team, working with three offensive coordinators. He did a very good job in the early years, but the unit as a whole has declined somewhat since 2018. Matt Ryan has suffered a lot of blows lately and the racing game has not been consistently driven by OL’s performance. Scheme plays a big role in that, and fans have been crying out for a change for some years. Morgan’s experience and familiarity with Shanahan means he won’t be looking for work for long.
The offensive line for the Falcons is very promising, with Jake Matthews continuing to play at a high level and emerging young talent like Chris Lindstrom, Kaleb McGary and Matt Hennessy. But Smith certainly has his own guys with whom he wants to form his offensive line, as he begins to form his group of assistant coaches.
Look out for Titans’ offensive line assistant coach Mike Sullivan for the OL spot. He and Smith have been together in Tennessee since 2014 (at the beginning of Ken Whisenhunt’s brief stint with the team), and Sullivan has extensive experience as an offensive lines coach in the NFL.
He has been the assistant coach of Smith’s offensive line with the Titans since 2019 and has held the same role from 2014-17. He was an offensive assistant in 2018. It is quite possible that the Titans would let former Atlanta assistant Keith Carter follow with Smith, but it is not as likely as Sullivan, given how successful he has been in Tennessee as a trainer for that unit. . However, another potential hiring that we still don’t know about is certainly in the mix.
In addition to the above names, Raheem Morris must land with Rams and potentially take defensive analysts Bob Sutton with him, while Jeff Ulbrich should go to Jets with new coach Robert Saleh. Only special team coordinator Bernie Parmalee has a realistic chance to remain at coordinator level after having done a good job taking on Ben Kotwica last year, while assistants such as defending coach Doug Mallory and wide receiver coach Dave Brock they may or may not be back as well.
Who will Smith hire for his offensive team? Many hires remain, and it is always refreshing to get new perspectives on how our attack is trained. They are certainly needed.