Falcons announce hiring of RBs coach Bernie Parmalee and two others, cut ties with assistant special teams coach

Last night, we heard reports that the Falcons had hired running backs coach Bernie Parmalee and former University of Hawaii special teams coordinator Mayur Chaudhari, though we didn’t know what position he had been hired for. Today, the team made those hires and one other official.

Parmalee is the biggest name here, and will hold the most major role in 2018. He spent the last three years working with Marshawn Lynch, DeAndre Washington, and others with the Raiders as their running backs coach, and he was a solid reserve back for nearly a decade in the NFL in his own right. Paramlee will be tasked with getting even more out of Devonta Freeman and Tevin Coleman, if such a thing is possible, and coaching up any young backs the team brings aboard in 2018.

Chaudhair joins Keith Armstrong’s special teams staff as an assistant. He has a long and varied coaching career to this point, having coached everything from wide receivers to the secondary before taking over Hawaii’s special teams two years ago. He’ll be a name to watch for the Falcons if Armstrong receives head coaching interviews and offers again in 2018.

Finally, there’s Chad Walker. He spent two years with the Falcons as a defensive assistant under Dan Quinn before becoming the outside linebackers coach for Arkansas in 2017. He’s now apparently back as an offensive assistant, despite never coaching on that side of the ball in his career. Chances are good he’ll assist Steve Sarkisian and company with identifying ways to attack opposing defenses, but his role is largely unclear at the moment.

There’s a flip side to this, which I wondered about. Longtime assistant Eric Sutulovich appears to be the fall guy for a lackluster special teams performance in 2017, as the team has let him go. Chaudhari will take over his job directly. As an extremely experienced special teams coach, Sutulovich should land on his feet somewhere.

With these hires, the Falcons appear to have their final coaching staff for the 2018 season. Warmly welcome these three gentlemen aboard.