{"id":721317,"date":"2026-02-01T11:47:17","date_gmt":"2026-02-01T11:47:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/721317\/"},"modified":"2026-02-01T11:47:17","modified_gmt":"2026-02-01T11:47:17","slug":"nfl-world-reacts-to-falcons-hiring-two-former-offensive-coordinators","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/721317\/","title":{"rendered":"NFL world reacts to Falcons hiring two former offensive coordinators"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/sportsdata.usatoday.com\/football\/nfl\/teams\/atlanta-falcons\/323\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Atlanta Falcons;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Atlanta Falcons<\/a> are going in a different direction on offense under head coach Kevin Stefanski. That much became obvious once the team retained defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich and let offensive coordinator Zac Robinson leave to call plays for the <a href=\"https:\/\/sportsdata.usatoday.com\/football\/nfl\/teams\/tampa-bay-buccaneers\/362\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Tampa Bay Buccaneers;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Tampa Bay Buccaneers<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Former <a href=\"https:\/\/sportsdata.usatoday.com\/football\/nfl\/teams\/cleveland-browns\/329\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Cleveland Browns;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Cleveland Browns<\/a> offensive coordinator Tommy Rees will take over for Robinson as Atlanta&#8217;s play-caller this season, and the rest of Stefanski&#8217;s staff has been coming together over the last few days.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>On Saturday, the team hired Alex Van Pelt as quarterbacks coach. Van Pelt served as the offensive coordinator for Drake Maye and the New England Patriots in 2024 before taking a job with the <a href=\"https:\/\/sportsdata.usatoday.com\/football\/nfl\/teams\/los-angeles-rams\/343\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Los Angeles Rams;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Los Angeles Rams<\/a> last year. Prior to that, he served as the Browns offensive coordinator for four years (2020-2023).<\/p>\n<p>Van Pelt wasn&#8217;t the only former offensive coordinator hired by the team over the weekend. According to a report from NFL Network, the Falcons are hiring Tanner Engstrand as their passing-game coordinator. Engstrand was the offensive coordinator for the New York Jets last season.<\/p>\n<p>While fans weren&#8217;t overly thrilled about Rees being named offensive coordinator, those around the NFL receptive have responded well to the team hiring Van Pelt and Engstrand.<\/p>\n<p>NFL world react to Falcons hiring two former play-callers<\/p>\n<p>This article originally appeared on Falcons Wire: <a href=\"https:\/\/thefalconswire.usatoday.com\/story\/sports\/nfl\/falcons\/2026\/02\/01\/falcons-tanner-engstrand-reaction\/88460102007\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Atlanta Falcons: NFL fans react to coaching staff additons;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Atlanta Falcons: NFL fans react to coaching staff additons<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Atlanta Falcons are going in a different direction on offense under head coach Kevin Stefanski. That much&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":721318,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[37501,254,54,146,833,24423,7,23834,8591,58,249,255,6,12611,7853,209,250,12599,26961,104097,9145],"class_list":["post-721317","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-alex-van-pelt","tag-atlanta-falcons","tag-cleveland-browns","tag-detroit","tag-drake-maye","tag-engstrand","tag-football","tag-kevin-knight","tag-kevin-stefanski","tag-los-angeles-rams","tag-new-england-patriots","tag-new-york-jets","tag-nfl","tag-offensive-coordinator","tag-penix","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-bay-buccaneers","tag-tanner-engstrand","tag-tommy-rees","tag-van-pelt","tag-zac-robinson"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115995216799138103","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/721317","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=721317"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/721317\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/721318"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=721317"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=721317"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=721317"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}