FLOWERY BRANCH — Former Rams offensive assistants K.J. Black and Nick Jones are set to join the Falcons’ coaching staff, according to a person familiar with the situation.
Black, who played quarterback at Western Kentucky and Prairie View A&M, spent the past two seasons with he Rams. He worked with the quarterbacks along with Zac Robinson, who has been named the Falcons’ offensive coordinator.
He was a Bill Walsh diversity coaching fellow and was credited with helping with the development of quarterbacks John Wolford and Bryce Perkins. Both had to play some during the Rams’ injury-plagued 2022 season.
Black coached at Florida A&M and Prairie View A&M as a graduate assistant.
Jones was with the Rams the past four seasons and worked primarily with the offensive line.
Before joining the Rams, Jones spent the 2020 season with the Falcons as a diversity coaching fellow.
He also has coached at Colorado State, Air Force and Georgia.
Jones, a native of Bowdon, was a four-year letterman at Georgia from 2003-06. He was named second-team All-SEC at center and was a co-captain in 2006.
Jones played in the NFL for the Seahawks (2007-09).
In other coaching news, the Falcons announced they are retaining assistant head coach/defense Jerry Gray and that Jay Rodgers will serve as the defensive line coach. He was the Chargers’ defensive run-game coordinator/defensive line last season.
T.J. Yates is moving to quarterbacks coach, Dwayne Ledford will be the run-game coordinator/offensive line and Michael Pitre will stay at running backs coach, as previously reported.
The Falcons also retained senior defensive assistant Dave Huxtable, director of coaching operations Sarah Hogan and coaching operations assistant Donavan Ellison.
In addition to Robinson, Jimmy Lake has been named the defensive coordinator and Marquice Williams was retained as the special-teams coordinator.
