In past years, the Falcons have had to be concerned about losing key offensive assistants to other teams, with Kyle Shanahan leaving his post as Falcons offensive coordinator for a job as the 49ers head coach, former quarterbacks coach Charles London taking other opportunities, and fans preparing themselves to lose Zac Robinson before it became clearly he was not going to be the next young hotshot coordinator to make the leap. In the immediate future, their likeliest departure may come on the defensive
side of the ball.
That would be Jeff Ulbrich, who is fresh off time in the NFL’s newly revamped accelerator program, which took a year off and returned with a distinctly different demographic and experience makeup than in the past. Ulbrich spoke to NFL Network about the experience and talked about being exposed to interview questions he wouldn’t have thought of and perspective on head coaching that was new to him despite his brief stint as the interim head coach of the Jets. It’s hard to come away from the interview without the impression that the Falcons defensive coordinator would leap at the chance for a head coaching gig if the right one came along, which is not particularly surprising.
Ulbrich’s interim head coaching experience, deep NFL connections as a player and coach, and fairly successful run as a defensive coordinator for both the Jets and now the Falcons primes him to make that leap in 2027 or 2028 if the Falcons defense plays well. It’s an opportunity that I’d say is deserved, and given how rapidly teams churn head coaches, it’s one he’s likely to at least field interviews for in 2027. If that happens, the team needs to be ready for what comes next, which preferably would be an in-house promotion.
Their defensive coaching staff continuity, which was clearly a priority this offseason under a new regime, should help with that. The team raised some eyebrows by blocking secondary coach Justin Hood for a job with the 49ers, which may position him as an internal candidate to take over for Ulbrich as defensive coordinator should he depart. New defensive passing game coordinator hire Patrick Toney is entering his fourth year in the NFL and has multiple years of defensive coordinator experience at the college level with Florida and Louisiana. Longtime defensive line coach Nate Ollie, who has done amazing work at every stop in that role, is also a possibility; we do have to remember that Ulbrich would likely attempt to poach this staff and bring favored assistants with him at his next stop.
The important thing is that the Falcons have a plan for continuity. Ulbrich was not a widely regaled hire in 2025 after replacing the disaster that was Jimmy Lake, but he did terrific work with the defense last year and is an experienced, steady hand at the tiller. Atlanta will not want to take the kind of step back that Lake represented when the team moved on from Ryan Nielsen, or the considerable steps back that resulted in year one under Steve Sarkisian taking over for Kyle Shanahan in 2017 or Dirk Koetter taking over for Sark in 2019; that would best be accomplished by ensuring one of Hood, Toney, or Ollie was groomed to be ready to take over. All of this may be moot if the Falcons defense craters, but given the talent on hand and the 2025 results despite some glaring holes, I’d bet on them being solid at worst in 2026.
I’m not trying to put a damper on the very first season under Ian Cunningham and Kevin Stefanski by pointing this out, but Ulbrich’s presence in the accelerator program tells you he’s eager for the opportunity and the NFL has identified him as a real head coaching candidate for the upcoming cycles. A team that spent this spring telegraphing that they’re already considering what 2027 might look like for the roster would be smart to extend that thinking to their coaching staff.
