Report: Falcons to hire Bryant Young as new defensive line coach

The Atlanta Falcons are not sitting around and waiting to fill their new coaching vacancies, which is good, because they’re several weeks behind other teams thanks to all that success.

Like Bryan Cox, Young is a former player. Unlike Cox, he has (surprise) a strong connection to Dan Quinn, having played under the fast and physical head coach while both were with the 49ers. More significantly, he was the defensive line coach for the Florida Gators when Quinn was the team’s defensive coordinator, as McClure notes in his piece. That means Quinn has seen him in that role firsthand, and has likely had designs on Young as an option if Cox left or was replaced for a little while now.

Young was also a very successful player who had 89.5 sacks, which hopefully means he can impart a little pass rushing wisdom to his new charges along the defensive front. With the team likely to turn over its line a bit to try to infuse more young talent and pass rushing acumen into the mix, hopefully Young will be able to coach them up.

The Falcons now only have vacancies at defensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach for the moment.