Seven assistants were added to the 2021 Atlanta Falcons football staff on Monday morning.
Seven assistants were added to the 2021 Atlanta Falcons football staff on Monday morning.
Roderick Moore Jr. and Bobby Thomas will join as assistant strength and conditioning coaches. Sal Conti, Patrick Kramer, Charles Walker and Paul Rice will serve as football analysts. The team also added Mario Jeberaeel as a diversity intern.
Moore previously served as the North America Athletics Director for Vald Performance. As for Thomas, he comes from Western Kentucky where he served as the director of strength and conditioning for the past three seasons.
Conti is a former scouting intern for the Kansas City Chiefs and Clemson assistant. Walker was the assistant recruiting coordinator at Penn State for the past two seasons, focusing primarily on the defensive side of the ball.
Rice previously served as the defensive coordinator/LBs coach at Fordham University. Jeberaeel has been the offensive line coach at Abilene Christian University since 2018.
Rivera’s strengths are accountability and keeping team matters in house, two things that the old regime struggled with in Washington.
Ever since Ron Rivera was hired as the head coach of the Washington Redskinsn, there seems to be a different air about the franchise as a whole. With team president Bruce Allen, front office decision-maker Eric Schaffer, and head trainer Larry Hess out of the building, many believe that it’s a new day in Washington, and there’s no more messing around.
There’s no proof to that belief, yet, but the feeling is that Rivera is ushering in a new era for the Redskins. An era where grown-up decisions are made, and there are no longer trade-deadline blunders or roster moves that are unable to be explained.
According to Andy Ross, and NFL agent who represents players like Washington’s Morgan Moses and New Orleans’ Taysom Hill, the Redskins are in good hands with Rivera.
“The one thing that Ron really instilled in the players, because I’ve had players on Carolina, was accountability,” Ross said, via NBC Sports Washington. “These are young men that are growing into men, so he wants to teach them to be strong men, be strong leaders. And I think that’s something he’s going to bring into Washington.”
Another major thing that Rivera will bring, according to Ross, is his ability to both keep things in house and transition players into the NFL. Under the old regime, mainly with Bruce Allen, there was a big problem with leaks, many of which undermined the decision-makers in the building.
“He doesn’t allow the outside influence to affect his football team,” Ross said. “So I think you’re going to see, with the Redskins going forward, that everything is going to be really kept in-house.”
The Redskins are a young team that has a bright future if their talent can be molded in the right system and the right culture. Based on the reputation that Rivera brings with him from Carolina, he’s the right man for the job.
The Panthers are reportedly interviewing former Green Bay head coach Mike McCarthy. They shouldn’t make that mistake.
The Carolina Panthers have reportedly interviewed former Green Bay Packers head coach Mike McCarthy for their open coaching spot, according to ESPN.
This would be a mistake.
Before I get into why, let’s give the man his due. McCarthy had success in Green Bay. He won a Super Bowl in 2010. The Packers were consistently competitive, if slightly underachieving, while he was the head coach there for 13 seasons.
He also had one of the most gifted quarterbacks to ever play the game on his roster, and continually under-achieved with a roster that was one of the strongest in the NFL.
His in-game management was a disaster. People called him conservative, but I wouldn’t even call him that — he just looked confused most of the time. I know how hectic a game sideline can be, how many moving parts there are, and I’m not asking every coach to be able to quickly run a down-and-distance win-probability analysis to make the right call every time.
(They probably should have someone on staff to do that, but still.)
With McCarthy, that wasn’t the issue. With McCarthy, he often seemed completely surprised by the situations as they presented themselves. I can’t recall the amount of times I saw Aaron Rodgers anxiously turn to the sideline with the Packers in a fourth-and-short situation, and the camera would cut to McCarthy, and he would look like I just asked him to translate a passage of particularly dense Greek.
McCarthy wasn’t weighing options. McCarthy was lost. Eventually, he’d sort of gather himself, and then send the field goal unit on the field as Rodgers would angrily storm off the field.
Again: That wasn’t something I saw once or twice. That happened all the time.
Photo by Dylan Buell/Getty Images
Now McCarthy is doing a bit of a press tour, saying he’s changed. I think he knew the knocks on him, so he gave an interview to NFL.com in which he said he’s been studying all the other teams, including their use of analytics.
McCarthy wants people to believe he’s seen the light. He’s not the conservative fuddy duddy who held Rodgers back. He’s innovative. He uses the computers, now!
But … then he made clear in the interview that he’s never going to totally change his style. Plus, this is what he said regarding the use of analytics:
“We were definitely on the average side at best in my time in Green Bay there.”
Average? Come on.
This man is paying lip service. Forgive me for thinking this, but to me, this is someone who has no idea. He says he studied analytics, but offers no insight into what that means, or how he wants to apply it. He just says he studied “analytics.”
What did he glean from these studies of his? That teams should be going for it far more often fourth down? That play-action pass is still under-utilized? That teams should be throwing more than they ever have?
No. All he learned is that he can do analytics better.
Right.
Panthers, if you want an old school, conservative coach who has a pedigree, by all means, hire Mike McCarthy. But don’t buy this idea he’s selling that he’s embraced analytics or has some innovative vision for the Panthers.
