Slowly, but surely Falcons‘ new head coach Arthur Smith is assembling his staff.
“We’ll take our time,” Smith said per AtlantaFalcons.com. “We’ve interviewed multiple people for coordinator spots and staff, and like I said, we will take our time. We want to be adaptable. That will be a big thing here. We will play to the strengths of our team but we want to be flexible and adaptable, and that’s one thing we are looking for schematically as we go through this process of hiring coaches.”
NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero reported on Thursday that the Falcons are “expected” to hire Chicago Bears running backs coach, Charles London, as Atlanta’s new QB coach.
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London’s Past and Present
London, 45, played college ball at Duke University. A few years afterwards he started his coaching career as a graduate assistant with the Duke Devils. He spent two years as a GA before bein promoted to the running backs coach in 2006.
London made his way to the NFL a year later in 2007 when he was hired by the Chicago Bears as an offensive quality control coach. After three seasons in Chicago, London was fried but immediatley joined the Philadelphia Eagles as a pro scout.
After a year in Philly, London was hired as the Tennessee Titans offensive quality control coach for one season where he coached with Smith.
In 2012, London went back to coaching at the collegiate level under Bill O’Brien at Penn State and worked with the running backs until 2013. When O’Brien was hired by the Texans in 2014, London joined his staff in Houston.
London left the Texans in 2018 and rejoined the Bears squad as the running backs coach until Matt Nagy. London has played a key rol in developing players such as David Montgomery, Tarik Cohen and Jordan Howard.
The Bears went 8-8 this past season and finished at No. 26 in team rushing yards with 99.7 per game. The Falcons finished at No. 38 with 95.8.
What makes this hire interesting is that London has never coached quarterbacks before be it has been reported he left the Texans to seek a QB job. With London, the Falcons have named Chicago’s passing game coordinator Dave Ragone as Atlanta’s new offensive coordinator.
Ragone to Join Falcons as Offensive Coordinator
Bears insider Kevin Fishbain confirmed the Falcosn new hire on Thursday afternoon.
The Falcons announced that Dave Ragone has been hired as their offensive coordinator.
Ragone had been with the Bears since 2016 — quarterbacks coach from 2016-19 and then passing game coordinator in 2020.
Arthur Smith and Ragone are very familiar with each other as the two previously worked together in Tennessee from 2011 to 2013. Smith was the Titans offensive line and tight end assistant coach in that time span while Ragone was the wide receivers coach before he was promoted to quarterbacks coach. Smith also spent a season as was the Titans’ offensive assistant/quality control coach and then another season as the defensive assistant/quality control coach.
Ragone, 41, spent five seasons with the Bears and his first as the passing game coordinator. He was the quarterback coach before he was promoted. Prior to that, Ragone was the offensive quality control coach for the Washington Football Team. Ragone has played a key role in helping to turn around Mitchell Trubisky, Jay Cutler, Kirk Cousins, and Jake Locker.
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Falcons Set to Hire Bears Assistant as New QB Coach