Falcons Promote 2, Add 4 Coaches To Arthur Smith's Staff

The Atlanta Falcons are making some moves.

Jeremy Brener | Mar 23, 2022

The Atlanta Falcons and head coach Arthur Smith made a couple changes to the coaching staff this week.

USATSI_8093489 — Jason Getz/USA Today Sports

T.J. Yates

Arthur Smith

The team promoted two of its coaches from the previous year, passing game specialist T.J. Yates and diversity coaching intern Mario Jeberaeel.

The Falcons have named Yates as the team’s receivers coach and Jeberaeel an assistant offensive line coach.

Despite being the receivers coach, Yates played seven years in the NFL as a quarterback, including the 2014 season with the Falcons as the recently-traded Matt Ryan's backup. His best success came with the Houston Texans in his rookie year in 2011, where he led the team to its first playoff win in franchise history.

The Falcons have also hired Steve Jackson as a senior offensive assistant, Shawn Flaherty as a football analyst, Steven King as the diversity coaching intern and Nick Edwards as an offensive assistant from outside the organization.

Jackson last coached the Cincinnati Bengals secondary for the past two seasons appearing in Super Bowl LVI, while Flaherty assisted the Miami Dolphins on staff for the past three seasons.

The other two additions to the staff previously coached in college. King was the special teams quality control coach at the University of North Carolina and Edwards was the offensive coordinator at Cal Poly University.

Cordarrelle Patterson

Arthur Smith

Dean Pees

Edwards is a former NFL player, who joined the Minnesota Vikings in 2013. Edwards was part of the same rookie class at the same position alongside current Falcons running back/wide receiver Cordarrelle Patterson, who recently signed a brand new two-year deal with the team.

Published Mar 23, 2022

JEREMY BRENER

Jeremy Brener is an editor, writer and social media manager for several Fan Nation websites. His work has also been featured in 247 Sports and SB Nation as a writer and podcaster. Brener has been with Fan Nation since 2021. Brener grew up in Houston, going to Astros, Rockets and Texans games as a kid. He moved to Orlando in 2016 to go to college and pursue a degree. He hosts "The Dream Take" podcast covering the Rockets, which has produced over 350 episodes since March 2020. Brener graduated in May 2020 from the University of Central Florida with a Bachelor's degree in Broadcast Journalism minoring in Sport Business Management. While at UCF, Brener worked for the school's newspaper NSM.today and "Hitting the Field," a student-run sports talk show and network. He was the executive producer for "Hitting the Field" from 2019-20. During his professional career, Brener has covered a number of major sporting events including the Pro Bowl, March Madness and several NBA and NFL games. As a fan, Brener has been to the 2005 World Series, 2010 FIFA World Cup and the 2016 NCAA National Championship between the Villanova Wildcats and North Carolina Tar Heels. Now, Brener still resides in the Central Florida area and enjoys writing, watching TV, hanging out with friends and going to the gym. Brener can be followed on Twitter @JeremyBrener. For more inquiries, please email jeremybrenerchs@gmail.com.