Falcons Interview Familiar Face for Defensive Coordinator Vacancy

The Atlanta Falcons interviewed a past friend in recent New York Jets interim head coach Jeff Ulbrich.
The Atlanta Falcons interviewed former New York Jets interim head coach Jeff Ulbrich for their defensive coordinator vacancy.
The Atlanta Falcons interviewed former New York Jets interim head coach Jeff Ulbrich for their defensive coordinator vacancy. / Ed Mulholland-Imagn Images
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The Atlanta Falcons have interviewed one of the leading candidates for their defensive coordinator vacancy.

Atlanta met virtually with former New York Jets defensive coordinator and interim head coach Jeff Ulbrich on Wednesday, it announced in a press release.

Ulbrich was the Falcons’ linebackers coach from 2015-20 and doubled as the team’s interim defensive coordinator in 2020 -- under then-interim head coach Raheem Morris, who's now entering his second season at the helm of the organization. Morris was on Atlanta's staff for the entirety of Ulbrich's tenure.

Beyond being coworkers, Ulbrich and Morris were friends. When Ulbrich became the Jets' interim head coach before Week 6, he called Morris while driving to the stadium earlier that week.

While they were together on staff in Atlanta, Morris and Ulbrich did an offseason study together, and it helped shape Morris's philosophies on defensive body types.

"Talked about the variables of length," Morris said. "For linebackers, it was shedding off of blocks and correlated so well to what we do. Talked about from the secondary and anywhere on defense, the people that had more length, they missed less tackles. And you start to look at it.

"You just put these charts together of length, size, time, didn't matter, the height and all those things. And length became this major factor that we really fell in love with and wanted to be able to increase some of those things in those studies."

The 47-year-old Ulbrich played 10 seasons at linebacker in the NFL. This season, the Jets went 3-9 under his guidance, but his defense ranked third best in yards allowed each of the past three years after sitting in last during his first year. New York, which also ranked last in scoring in 2021, finished fourth, 12th and 20th in points allowed the past three seasons.

The Jets didn't retain Ulbrich at season's end, but with his past ties to Morris and the Falcons' organization, it's possible he won't be in unfamiliar territory once the 2025 season kicks off.


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Daniel Flick
DANIEL FLICK

Daniel Flick is an accredited NFL writer for Sports Illustrated's FanNation. Daniel has provided boots-on-ground coverage at the NFL Combine and from the Atlanta Falcons' headquarters, among other destinations, and contributed to the annual Lindy's Sports Magazine ahead of the 2023 offseason. Daniel is a co-host on the 404TheFalcon podcast and previously wrote for the Around the Block Network and Georgia Sports Hospitality Media.