{"id":756823,"date":"2026-02-16T21:51:33","date_gmt":"2026-02-16T21:51:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/756823\/"},"modified":"2026-02-16T21:51:33","modified_gmt":"2026-02-16T21:51:33","slug":"atlanta-dc-admits-to-phd-level-loss-of-mike-rutenberg-to-browns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/756823\/","title":{"rendered":"Atlanta DC admits to ‘PhD level’ loss of Mike Rutenberg to Browns"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Atlanta Falcons already had their hands full<\/a> with the James Pearce Jr. situation. And new head coach Kevin Stefanski has worked hard<\/a> on getting his staff in place. However, the Falcons’ defensive coordinator admitted that Mike Rutenberg going to the Browns is a \u201cPhD-level\u201d loss<\/a>, according to a post on X by Josh Kendall.<\/p>\n

\u201cA big loss for the Falcons. Jeff Ulbrich: \u201cHe\u2019s one of the best teachers in this league. He understands the back end at a PhD-plus level. He\u2019s a huge part of our success back there. Whether he gets a coordinator job this season or next, it\u2019s inevitable. He\u2019s too good a coach.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rutenberg has taken over as the Browns\u2019 defensive coordinator.<\/p>\n

Falcons have challenges ahead for 2026<\/p>\n

Ulbrich didn\u2019t have the Falcons firing on all cylinders in 2025. They did well in the sack department. But they were No. 15 in yards allowed, and No. 19 in points.<\/p>\n

But there\u2019s a new direction in Atlanta. Not only with Stefanski, but also with Matt Ryan stepping into a key role<\/a>. Ulbrich liked that move, according to atlantafalcons.com.<\/p>\n

\u201cI sat with Matt for six straight years on almost every away game and developed a really cool relationship with him about football, life, family,\u201d Ulbrich said, \u201cand everything in between. (The hiring of Ryan) is phenomenal. Because, obviously, he is one of the highest-level character human beings inside or outside of football that I’ve ever been around.\u201d<\/p>\n

Leadership is the key. And Ulbrich said Ryan brings that to the organization.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s been so cool to see him in this role because, does he know what it takes to be a Super Bowl quarterback?\u201d Ulbrich said. \u201cFor sure, he does. He took us to a Super Bowl when he was an MVP for a season. He’s played this game at the highest level. Does he know how to execute a game plan? Absolutely. It’s proven over the course of his career. Does he know what being a winner looks like? Absolutely. He knows what that process looks like to create a winner.\u201d<\/p>\n

Of course, losing Rutenberg won\u2019t help Ulbrich do his own job any easier. But Ryan could help the Falcons fill the void with another quality coach.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Atlanta Falcons already had their hands full with the James Pearce Jr. situation. And new head coach…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":756824,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2074],"tags":[223,254,2554,224,7,8591,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-756823","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-atlanta-falcons","8":"tag-atlanta","9":"tag-atlanta-falcons","10":"tag-atlantafalcons","11":"tag-falcons","12":"tag-football","13":"tag-kevin-stefanski","14":"tag-nfl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116082526561775639","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/756823","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=756823"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/756823\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/756824"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=756823"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=756823"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=756823"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}