Falcons’ coordinators excited about potential

Like most savvy coordinators, neither Falcons’ Tommy Rees nor Jeff Ulbrich gave away too much information in Wednesday’s first offseason availability.

Their reasons were different.

Rees was hired by new coach Kevin Stefanski just a few weeks ago. The 33-year-old, who came from Cleveland, where he was offensive coordinator under Stefanski, hasn’t gotten to see his players yet.

“Feel really strongly about the roster that’s in place,” Rees said. “Excited for this offseason to continue to develop and add to that. The fun will come in a couple months with the players, but the work’s definitely already started.”

Ulbrich, who was retained after Raheem Morris was fired following consecutive 8-9, nonplayoff seasons, wasn’t that informative, but not because he didn’t have anything to say. In fact, there’s almost too much to say.

He said the group learned so much and played in so many different fronts last season that he can plan around strengths of the personnel, rather than what the players can’t do.

“The beauty of what we’ve created here now is a guy that might not necessarily be the traditional 4-3 edge pass rusher, take them, because we know how to use them and we know how to feature it, which helps,” said Ulbrich, whose group had a franchise-record 57 sacks last season.

Rees said he is excited to work with Falcons quarterback Michael Penix Jr. and referenced he could play under center some of this season. It’s not something Penix has done much going through his college career at Indiana and Washington. He has almost exclusively played out of the shotgun.

Rees said he appreciated Penix’s strength, accuracy and ability to withstand pressure in the pocket. Penix suffered a partially torn ACL in his left knee Nov. 16. His prognosis was to miss at least nine months.

Penix is working through his rehab at the Falcons’ facility. The two have spoken.

“Everybody’s always spoken so highly (of him),” Rees said. “You meet him for two minutes, and you can feel that right away. So I think you’re looking at a young player that’s, you know, really hungry and eager to get back out there, and that’s our job as coaches to put in a position to have success.”

Led by Penix and Kirk Cousins, the Falcons averaged 20.8 points, 218.8 passing yards and 125.8 rushing yards per game. Rees took over play-calling duties last season in Cleveland for the final nine games. The Browns, playing two rookie quarterbacks, averaged 17 points, 157.2 passing and 103.7 rushing yards per game. The averages were similar to what Cleveland had for the season.

Rees said he likes that, led by running back Bijan Robinson and wide receiver Drake London, the players on offense are unselfish. Rees said he knows that new hire Bill Callahan will continue to develop what he said was an offensive line that was very good blocking for the run last season.

“The talent speaks for itself, but the football character and the makeup of that is at such a high level,” Rees said.

Until they can coach players, Rees said an immediate area of importance is ensuring the staff is aligned on everything from verbiage they will use with the players to evaluating what is on the roster and what will be available when free agency opens March 11 and the draft starts April 23. Offseason workouts can begin April 6.

Both are finalizing coaching staffs. Ulbrich said he hopes the team can retain defensive passing game coordinator coach Mike Rutenberg, whom he described as having a Ph.D. level of knowledge about secondaries.

Ulbrich also hopes the team can re-sign Kaden Elliss, a player that helped the defense be flexible, and said he’d love for the team to invest more money into the defensive line. He noted the money and draft picks spent on the lines by past Super Bowl winners Seattle and Philadelphia, as well as this year’s loser, New England.