Falcons hire three assistant coaches, four football analysts

It’s been a quiet few weeks for the Falcons after the initial flurry of hires following the announcement of new head coach Arthur Smith and general manager Terry Fontenot. The vast majority of the high-level roles on the coaching staff have been filled, but there is still plenty of room for assistants and other staff hires as the team broadens their search for quality candidates.

On Monday, the Falcons announced the hiring of seven additional coaching and staff members.

Roderick Moore Jr. and Bobby Thomas join the team as assistant strength and conditioning coaches, while Mario Jeberaeel has been hired as a diversity coaching intern. The team also hired four football analysts: Paul Rice, Charles Walker, Sal Conti, and Patrick Kramer.

Moore has a lot of experience in strength and conditioning, beginning his career as a graduate assistant strength coach at the University of Tennessee in 1999. He was promoted twice at UT, staying with the team through 2007 before spending two seasons as the co-director of strength and conditioning at FIU. Most recently, Moore spent two years as the Athletics Director of North America for Vald Performance.

Thomas also has a great deal of experience as a strength and conditioning coach. He began his career as a graduate assistant at the University of South Dakota in 2012, and has since spent time at Stanford (2014), North Carolina State (2015), and Fresno State (2016-2017). Thomas spent the prior three seasons at Western Kentucky, where he served as the associate director of strength and conditioning.

Jeberaeel has spent most of his coaching tenure on the offensive line. After two years as a graduate assistant at Nicholls State University (2010-2011), he was promoted to offensive line coach in 2012. He also spent time at the University of Arkansas-Monticello (OL, TE, FBs coach, 2013-2014), University of Kansas (assistant OL coach, 2015-2016; quality control coach, 2017), and Abilene Christian University (OL coach, 2018-2020). In 2019, Jeberaeel was hired as a Bill Walsh Diversity Coaching Fellow for the Green Bay Packers during OTAs.

Rice brings a defensive background to his football analyst role, spending the previous three years (2018-2020) at Fordham University as the defensive coordinator and linebackers coach. He’s also coached DBs, special teams, and outside LBs at Yale University (2013-2017) and began his career as a graduate assistant at Georgia Tech in 2012.

Walker has a history with defense and special teams, along with recruiting. He began his coaching career at the University of Massachusetts as a linebackers coach from 2014-2016, and first became a recruiting coordinator in 2016. Walker was promoted to special teams coordinator for the 2018 season. He spent the previous two years at Penn State University, where he served as an assistant recruiting coordinator.

Conti primarily has a background in scouting and video analysis. He began his career at Central Connecticut State, where he was a student assistant OL and TEs coach from 2015-2017. Conti got his first taste of the NFL in 2019, when he was hired as a scouting intern for the Chiefs. He spent the 2020 season as an offensive video graduate assistant as Clemson.

Kramer brings a mostly offensive background to the Falcons. His coaching career began in 2016 as a WRs coach at John Carroll University. In 2017, he became the offensive quality control coach at University of Tennessee Chattanooga. Kramer spent the prior three seasons as a senior offensive analyst and assistant QB coach at Notre Dame (2018-2020).

Join us in wishing the best to the Falcons most recent hires!