The Falcoholic
There was plenty of buzz last night about former Falcons coach Matt LaFleur potentially losing his job after his Green Bay Packers collapsed against the Chicago Bears, and whether the Falcons would scoop him up if that happened. While that collapse was in progress, however, the Falcons were announcing they had interviewed another former coach.
That would be Aden Durde, who began his career in Atlanta as a Bill Walsh diversity coaching fellowship hire in 2016 under Dan Quinn, spent the next three seasons as a defensive quality control coach, and was promoted to outside linebackers coach in that doomed 2020 season. Durden then spent three seasons as the defensive line coach under Quinn in Dallas before the Seahawks snapped him up as their defensive coordinator, where he’s overseen Seattle’s re-emergence as one of the league’s most potent defenses. He’s a rising star with familiarity with the Falcons, in other words.
I continue to think an offensive-minded coach is a likelier hire, like Durde’s fellow Seattle coordinator Klint Kubiak, but Durde does have a lot to recommend him given the quality of the position groups and defenses he’s overseen. Whether’s he hired in this cycle or teams will want to see a year or two more of his coaching, it would be surprising if Durde didn’t get a shot in the next couple cycles given his success and strong ties to both Dan Quinn and now Mike Macdonald’s coaching trees to help him build a staff.
We’ll see if Durde ends up among the finalists for the job here, but the Falcons are smartly casting a wide net with a mix of experienced and rising coaches again, even if one suspects they have a preferred candidate in mind.
