A former Buffalo Bills quarterback — once a successor to Jim Kelly — is headed to his next NFL team after landing a new coaching job.
The Atlanta Falcons announced that they hired Alex Van Pelt as their quarterbacks coach, reuniting him with head coach Kevin Stefanski. Van Pelt has put together a successful career as an assistant coach after a largely unremarkable NFL career as a quarterback.
Alex Van Pelt Finds New Post
The Falcons announced on Jan. 31 that they hired Van Pelt as their quarterbacks coach, a jump from his role as senior offensive assistant for the Los Angeles Rams during the 2025 season. As the Falcons noted in their announcement, Van Pelt has plenty of experience working with quarterbacks and helped develop one of the top MVP candidates this season.
“Van Pelt spent the 2025 season as a senior offensive assistant for the Los Angeles Rams following five seasons as the offensive coordinator for the New England Patriots (2024) and Cleveland Browns (2020-23),” the team noted. “In New England, he guided rookie quarterback Drake Maye to Pro Bowl honors, the first New England quarterback to earn the accolade since 2021.”
Van Pelt also has plenty of success working alongside Stefanski, the new head coach for the Falcons.
“Throughout Van Pelt’s time in Cleveland, working with Falcons Head Coach Kevin Stefanski, he led the offense to two of the top-five single-season point totals in franchise history, totaling 408 points in 2020 and 396 in 2023, the second- and fifth-most in team history, respectively,” the team noted.
Van Pelty had a history with the Bills, playing there from 1994 to 2003 and serving mostly as a backup. His most notable game came in relief of Kelly, who was injured during a divisional-round playoff game against the Pittsburgh Steelers in the 1995 season. Van Pelt led a comeback, erasing a multi-touchdown deficit and bringing the Bills within five points, but the Steelers pulled away in the fourth quarter.
Van Pelt and Todd Collins then split starts in the 1997 season, after Kelly’s retirement.
Bills Bring Back Another Former Player
The Bills looked at several former players for coaching roles after firing head coach Sean McDermott in January. The team considered Davis Webb, who served as a backup to quarterback Josh Allen, but ultimately passed on him in favor of Joe Brady.
The Bills did end up hiring one former player to a top coaching role — former defensive back Jim Leonhard, who will serve as the team’s new defensive coordinator.
Brady said he was impressed by Leonhard’s ideas for the secondary, an area of strength and weakness at varying times under McDermott.
“Jim’s vision for what he wants from our defense and the personality they play with is the exact style of what I was looking for from a defensive coordinator. You could tell how smart and versatile his secondary was when we watched them on tape,” Brady said.
“He is super intelligent, a great communicator, and highly regarded in this league. He started out as a rookie free agent with the Bills and ended up playing 10 years in the NFL. That same perseverance and mindset have carried over into his coaching career. We couldn’t be happier to get him back to Buffalo.”
Ex-Bills QB Lands New Coaching Job in NFC South