:format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/64781451/1074697120.jpg.0.jpg)
The Falcons announced on Monday the addition of three coaching fellows for the duration of training camp. Lance Schulters, Jamel Mutunga, and Tracy Zimmer will join the team as Bill Walsh coaching fellows for the 2019 training camp period.
Schulters was a defensive backs intern with the team from 2015 through 2017, and he’s a former NFL defensive back. Schulters was drafted by the 49ers in the fourth round of the 1998 draft, and he racked up 537 total tackles and 19 interceptions over his 10-year career, with stops with the Titans, Dolphins, and Falcons along the way.
Mutunga is an offensive assistant at Princeton University. That unit set an Ivy League record last year after averaging a whopping 47 points per game.
Zimmer’s resume is so unique that I’m just sharing it verbatim from the team’s release announcing the news.
Zimmer is formerly the Sports Performance and Strength & Conditioning Coach for the University of Pennsylvania. She is responsible for designing and implanting programs for eight teams, including men’s and women’s lacrosse and track and field and in 2019, Zimmer became the Football Co-Head Strength & Conditioning Coach. She has coached several professional athletes including several NFL players, and she has also personally trained a tier one special operations soldier. Zimmer is proficient in teaching proper execution of Olympic lifts, speed/agility/plyometrics.
The Bill Walsh coaching fellowship helps create opportunities for minorities to gain valuable experience in the NFL coaching ranks. All 32 teams participate each year. Raheem Morris participated in the program in the past, as did former Falcons special teams coordinator Keith Armstrong. Fellows will remain with teams through training camp and the preseason.
The Falcons also added former Maryland head coach D.J. Durkin as a guest assistant coach for the training camp period. Durkin was fired from the University of Maryland after a redshirt freshman, Jordan McNair, collapsed during team workouts and later died. McNair’s family confirmed heatstroke as the cause of death.