{"id":721404,"date":"2026-02-01T12:42:15","date_gmt":"2026-02-01T12:42:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/721404\/"},"modified":"2026-02-01T12:42:15","modified_gmt":"2026-02-01T12:42:15","slug":"nfl-fans-react-to-coaching-staff-additons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/721404\/","title":{"rendered":"NFL fans react to coaching staff additons"},"content":{"rendered":"

Feb. 1, 2026, 6:04 a.m. ET<\/p>\n

The 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 Tampa Bay Buccaneers<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Former Cleveland Browns<\/a> offensive coordinator Tommy Rees will take over for Robinson as Atlanta’s play-caller this season, and the rest of Stefanski’s staff has been coming together over the last few days.<\/p>\n

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 Los Angeles Rams<\/a> last year. Prior to that, he served as the Browns offensive coordinator for four years (2020-2023).<\/p>\n

Van Pelt wasn’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

While fans weren’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

Expert NFL picks: Exclusive betting insights only at USA TODAY.<\/a>NFL world react to Falcons hiring two former play-callers\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Feb. 1, 2026, 6:04 a.m. ET The Atlanta Falcons are going in a different direction on offense under…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":721405,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2074],"tags":[95878,223,254,2554,224,7,6,96607,96608,95882,96609,95957,96127,95924,95896,95888,95895,95897,95906,95884,95883,96239,95881],"class_list":{"0":"post-721404","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-atlanta-falcons","8":"tag-accessfree","9":"tag-atlanta","10":"tag-atlanta-falcons","11":"tag-atlantafalcons","12":"tag-falcons","13":"tag-football","14":"tag-nfl","15":"tag-sstssportsnflfalcons","16":"tag-sstsnfalcons","17":"tag-tagamerican-football","18":"tag-tagatlanta-falcons","19":"tag-tagcleveland-browns","20":"tag-tagdrake-maye","21":"tag-taglos-angeles-rams","22":"tag-tagnational-sports","23":"tag-tagnfl","24":"tag-tagnfl-hub","25":"tag-tagoverall-negative","26":"tag-tagoverall-positive","27":"tag-tagsports-coaching-training","28":"tag-tagsports-news","29":"tag-tagtampa-bay-buccaneers","30":"tag-typestory"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115995433094779953","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/721404","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=721404"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/721404\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/721405"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=721404"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=721404"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=721404"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}