{"id":783755,"date":"2026-03-01T05:51:39","date_gmt":"2026-03-01T05:51:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/783755\/"},"modified":"2026-03-01T05:51:39","modified_gmt":"2026-03-01T05:51:39","slug":"atlanta-falcons-targeting-ole-miss-co-dc-patrick-toney-for-defensive-pass-game-coordinator","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/783755\/","title":{"rendered":"Atlanta Falcons targeting Ole Miss co-DC Patrick Toney for defensive pass game coordinator"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Atlanta Falcons are targeting Ole Miss<\/a> co-defensive coordinator Patrick Toney<\/a> as its new defensive pass game coordinator, according to On3\u2019s Pete Nakos. First-year Rebels head coach Pete Golding<\/a> is expected to continue to call defensive plays in 2026 after serving as Ole Miss\u2019 DC the past three seasons.<\/p>\n

The 35-year-old Toney is entering his first season as Ole Miss\u2019 defensive coordinator after being hired in early January<\/a> following three seasons as the Arizona Cardinals\u2018 defensive backs coach between 2023-25. Prior to that, Toney spent the 2022 season as the co-DC and safeties coach at Florida<\/a> under then-new Gators head coach Billy Napier<\/a> after following him from Louisiana<\/a>, where he served four years on the Ragin\u2019 Cajuns\u2019 defensive staff, the last two as coordinator. He also spent time at Southeastern Louisiana<\/a>, Sam Houston State<\/a> and UTSA<\/a>, where he worked directly under Golding.<\/p>\n

Should Toney choose to leave, Ole Miss still has new co-defensive coordinator and alumnus Bryan Brown<\/a>, whose official title is head coach of the defense, leading the unit. Brown held a similar role the past two seasons under Golding after previously serving as associate head coach\/defensive coordinator at Cincinnati<\/a> (2023) and Louisville<\/a> (2019-22). <\/p>\n

The Atlanta Falcons are in the midst of a staffing overhauling, especially defensively, following an offseason coaching change with the hiring of former Cleveland Browns head coach Kevin Stefanski<\/a> on Jan. 17. That includes a surprise shakeup earlier Friday with the dismissal of new defensive lines coach LaTroy Lewis<\/a> two weeks after hiring him.<\/p>\n

Falcons fire assistant DL coach LaTroy Lewis after rape allegations emerge from Michigan tenure<\/p>\n

The\u00a0Atlanta Falcons\u00a0reportedly dismissed Lewis\u00a0on Friday,\u00a0according to ESPN\u2019s Adam Schefter<\/a>, after learning Lewis has been accused of rape during his time as a member of\u00a0Michigan<\/a>\u2018s football staff. Lewis, who was hired about two weeks ago, has been accused of sexually assaulting an Ann Arbor woman in 2024, according to a\u00a0report from\u00a0Justin Spiro\u00a0of\u00a0The Spiro Avenue Show<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are aware of\u00a0allegations<\/a>\u00a0regarding LaTroy Lewis,\u201d the Falcons\u00a0said<\/a>\u00a0in a statement earlier Friday. \u201cWe are in the process of gathering information and will have no further comment at this time.\u201d<\/p>\n

The allegations, which also involve fired former Michigan head coach\u00a0Sherrone Moore<\/a>, were detailed publicly through social media posts from Spiro (@DarkoStateNews on X\/Twitter), who cited accusations of violence made by a woman against Lewis. Spiro reported that the alleged criminal conduct began in 2024, Lewis\u2019 final year with Michigan before he accepted a defensive line coaching position at\u00a0Toledo<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u2014 On3\u2019s Steve Samra contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Atlanta Falcons are targeting Ole Miss co-defensive coordinator Patrick Toney as its new defensive pass game coordinator,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":783756,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2074],"tags":[223,254,2554,224,7,6,110533],"class_list":["post-783755","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-atlanta-falcons","tag-atlanta","tag-atlanta-falcons","tag-atlantafalcons","tag-falcons","tag-football","tag-nfl","tag-patrick-toney"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116152361516328876","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/783755","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=783755"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/783755\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/783756"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=783755"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=783755"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=783755"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}