ATLANTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First) \u2014 The Atlanta Falcons welcomed new offensive coordinator Tommy Rees and special teams coordinator Craig Auckerman on Wednesday afternoon, while also welcoming back defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think very highly of these coordinators,\u201d new head coach Kevin Stefanski said. \u201cI\u2019m very excited about the group we\u2019re putting together as a whole \u2014 Tommy, Brich, Auck \u2014 I think it\u2019s a really strong group that I\u2019m excited for you guys to get to know.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rees, who served as the Browns\u2019 offensive coordinator in 2025, said he and Stefanski have different personalities but complement each other well. He added there was no hesitation in following Stefanski to Atlanta.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I left Alabama and went to Cleveland a couple years ago, I really did it to work for Kevin,\u201d Rees said. \u201cMy opinion [of Stefanski] has only grown since that time. I\u2019m not afraid to challenge Kev on certain things, and Kev\u2019s not afraid to push back. I think for any healthy working relationship, you need to have that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rees said he\u2019s already spoken with several players, including quarterback Michael Penix Jr., and is looking forward to working with the offense.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe talent speaks for itself, but the football character and the makeup of them is at such a high level,\u201d Rees said. \u201cThat\u2019s the exciting part for us as a staff \u2014 we get to work with guys who want to do it the right way.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ulbrich expressed appreciation for former Falcons head coach Raheem Morris and general manager Terry Fontenot, describing the unique nature of the transition.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was something I\u2019ve never been through, and talking to a lot of different coaches, a lot of coaches have never been through it as well,\u201d Ulbrich said. \u201cTypically, a staff gets fired, and that\u2019s it. Everybody goes their own way.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor them to hold onto my contract, first of all, I was blown away, and it was an honor.\u201d<\/p>\n
This will mark the first time Ulbrich and Stefanski work together.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s one of those guys \u2014 a rare guy in this business \u2014 where you can\u2019t find anyone who\u2019s said something bad about this man,\u201d Ulbrich said.<\/p>\n
New special teams coordinator Craig Auckerman was also introduced and was asked about the Falcons\u2019 kicking situation last season.<\/p>\n
\u201cZane, I thought he did a really good job coming back in and kind of steadying everything down. I know it was interesting having a bunch of different kickers,\u201d Auckerman said. \u201cI dealt with a similar situation at Miami. My biggest thing that I look at in a kicker is I want a guy that\u2019s confident.\u201d<\/p>\n
Stefanski said the coaching staff is very close to being finalized.<\/p>\n
Copyright 2026 WANF. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ATLANTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First) \u2014 The Atlanta Falcons welcomed new offensive coordinator Tommy Rees and special teams…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":746192,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2074],"tags":[52,223,254,107200,107199,2554,86,54,107201,224,107198,7,2662,8591,6,26961],"class_list":["post-746191","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-atlanta-falcons","tag-alabama","tag-atlanta","tag-atlanta-falcons","tag-atlanta-falcons-defensive-coordinator","tag-atlanta-falcons-offensive-coordinator","tag-atlantafalcons","tag-browns","tag-cleveland-browns","tag-craig-auckerman","tag-falcons","tag-falcons-coordinators","tag-football","tag-jeff-ulbrich","tag-kevin-stefanski","tag-nfl","tag-tommy-rees"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116055536351510817","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/746191","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=746191"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/746191\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/746192"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=746191"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=746191"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=746191"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}