{"id":743753,"date":"2026-02-11T01:44:14","date_gmt":"2026-02-11T01:44:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/743753\/"},"modified":"2026-02-11T01:44:14","modified_gmt":"2026-02-11T01:44:14","slug":"atlanta-falcons-make-changes-to-coaching-staff","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/743753\/","title":{"rendered":"Atlanta Falcons make changes to coaching staff"},"content":{"rendered":"

Updated Feb. 10, 2026, 6:00 p.m. ET<\/p>\n

The Atlanta Falcons<\/a> hired two new assistant coaches and retained two others on Tuesday afternoon. The team added Ricky Manning Jr. as the assistant defensive backs\/nickels coach and LaTroy Lewis as the new assistant defensive line coach.<\/p>\n

Additionally, the Falcons retained inside linebackers coach Barrett Ruud and promoted defensive assistant John Timu to outside linebackers coach.<\/p>\n

Manning served as the defensive backs coach for the Las Vegas Raiders<\/a> in 2024. Prior to that, he spent three years with the New York Jets (2021-2023) as an assistant under current Falcons defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich.<\/p>\n

Lewis served as the defensive line coach at the University of Toledo last season after spending the previous three years as a graduate assistant at the University of Michigan.<\/p>\n

Ruud has served as the Falcons’ inside linebackers coach since 2024. He played linebacker in the NFL from 2005-2012, primarily for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Expert NFL picks: Exclusive betting insights only at USA TODAY.<\/a><\/p>\n

Timu began his career as a graduate assistant at Washington and later joined the Los Angeles Chargers as a defensive assistant in 2022 and was promoted to assistant defensive line coach in 2023. He joined the Falcons’ staff in 2024.<\/p>\n

\"\"\/\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Updated Feb. 10, 2026, 6:00 p.m. ET The Atlanta Falcons hired two new assistant coaches and retained two…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":743754,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2074],"tags":[95878,223,254,2554,224,7,6,96607,96608,95882,96609,95885,95896,95888,95895,95899,95906,96071,95884,95883,96239,99414,95881],"class_list":{"0":"post-743753","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-taglas-vegas-raiders","20":"tag-tagnational-sports","21":"tag-tagnfl","22":"tag-tagnfl-hub","23":"tag-tagoverall-neutral","24":"tag-tagoverall-positive","25":"tag-tagsmg-timely","26":"tag-tagsports-coaching-training","27":"tag-tagsports-news","28":"tag-tagtampa-bay-buccaneers","29":"tag-taguniversity-of-michigan","30":"tag-typestory"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116049469115684824","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/743753","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=743753"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/743753\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/743754"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=743753"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=743753"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=743753"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}