Accountability ‘is everything’ for new Falcons special teams boss Aukerman

FLOWERY BRANCH — Falcons franchise owner Arthur Blank has said several times that more accountability is needed within the football operation.

Matt Ryan echoed that sentiment when he was hired as president of football. Kevin Stefanski repeated the theme when Ryan introduced him as head coach.

Special teams might be the area of the team that could benefit most from more accountability.

When Blank fired coach Raheem Morris after last season, the owner essentially was holding Morris accountable for his inability to fix those units. The Falcons lost nine games in 2025. Mistakes by special teams played a large role in five of them.

Special teams coordinator Marquice Williams wasn’t retained. Stefanski replaced him with Craig Aukerman, who said this week that accountability “is everything” for a team.

“I feel like that’s one of the biggest parts of my job is to have those guys be accountable,” Aukerman said. “Whether it’s being on time, whether it’s just knowing every single detail that we’re going to give them out there on the football field or in the meetings. I think it’s going to be huge, and it’s an everyday deal.

“You gotta be held accountable every day to myself, to this organization, to Mr. Blank, to coach Stefanski. We all gotta be held accountable.”

The nature of special teams makes coaching them a difficult job. Mistakes by those units often are game-changing, and there are limited opportunities to make up for them. There are also unique personnel challenges for special teams coaches.

The top players on offense and defense tend to stick around from year to year with roles that don’t change much. The yearly churn at the bottom of the roster often includes major contributors on special teams.

Playing time for special teams players can vary from week to week, depending upon how many snaps they play on offense and defense. The coordinator is constantly adjusting roles and teaching players.

“It’s different for a special teams coach, they got guys coming in and out each and every week all season, all the different types of things,” Aukerman said. “Basically, my whole thing is we want to teach these guys whatever we can to help our team win. Whether … you’re a four-core (all units) football player, a two-core football player, it doesn’t matter. We want to have a role for you and we want you to excel in it.

“So that’s my biggest thing. I want to teach these guys, I want to develop them, and I want to inspire them to play as hard as they possibly can.”

Aukerman said he’s already had a chat with Falcons cornerback Mike Ford, the team’s leader in special teams snaps last season. That suggests Ford is likely to be retained.

Other core special teams players under contract for next season include JD Bertrand and Josh Woods. Feleipe Franks is eligible to become a free agent.

Aukerman said he will provide a detailed individual development plan to every player on special teams.

“I’ve got to really study it and understand what these guys can do,” Aukerman said. “Good coaching is taking a player (to) where he’s not capable of taking himself. Bad coaching is asking a player to do something that he’s physically not capable of doing, and that’s a part of matchups.”

Morris and Williams had trouble getting consistent performances from the special teams units. Morris said the mistakes can’t happen, and yet they did, over and over. He bristled at questions about whether he was considering replacing Williams.

Special teams were a problem for the Falcons from the very start. Younghoe Koo missed a field goal attempt that would have tied the score with six seconds left in the opener. The Falcons paid the price for keeping Koo after he struggled with injuries and inconsistency in 2024.

The Falcons cut Koo and replaced him with Parker Romo. He was released after missing three of 12 attempts from 30 yards or longer.

The third kicker the Falcons used last season, Zane Gonzalez, finally provided some stability even though he missed a key field goal attempt during the loss to the Jets.

“I thought he did a really good job coming back in, kind of steadying everything down,” Aukerman said.

Williams and Morris never managed to solve the problems with the kickoff coverage unit. The Falcons allowed five kickoff returns of 49 yards or more, and four of them contributed to losses.

Mistakes by special teams units cost the Falcons 13 points during their three-point loss at the woeful Jets in Week 13. New York scored a touchdown after Jamal Agnew muffed a punt inside the 10-yard line. Agnew was still returning punts during the next week’s game against the Seahawks.

Seattle started its comeback victory when Rashid Shaheed returned the opening kickoff of the second half 100 yards for a touchdown. The Falcons beat the Rams 27-24 in Week 17, but Jared Verse blocked their field goal try late in the third quarter and returned it 73 yards for a game-tying TD.

If there was accountability for Falcons special teams players, then it didn’t show. They were making the same mistakes late in the season as they were early.

Blank wants more accountability for the Falcons. Aukerman can provide it for the special teams.

“I talk about every day is an interview for me, for the players,” Aukerman said. “I learned that a long time ago when I got into coaching, that you need to go in every day and feel like it’s an interview.