The coaching turnover continues. Atlanta will officially be looking for a new defensive coordinator as NFL Network’s Mike Garafolo reports that the Falcons have fired Jimmy Lake. In addition to Lake, Atlanta has let go of defensive line coach Jay Rodgers, as well. 
Lake, a very experienced defensive backs coach with four universities and four NFL teams on his résumé, was in his first year as a defensive coordinator in the NFL. Following a playing career in college, Lake immediately jumped into coaching. With seven years of college coaching under his belt, Lake got his first NFL coaching opportunity as the assistant defensive backs coach in Tampa Bay under then-defensive backs coach Raheem Morris.
Lake was poached away by the Lions, taking his first full position coaching gig in the NFL as defensive backs coach in Detroit in 2008. After the team famously finished winless, though, the entire coaching staff was let go. After a year hiatus, Lake found himself back in Tampa Bay under Morris, who by that time had become head coach. This time, Lake served in the full role of defensive backs coach. Both Morris and Lake were fired in 2011.
At this point Lake parted ways with Morris, heading back to the collegiate ranks of coaching. He began a stint at the University of Washington in 2014 (his second stint in Seattle) that saw his biggest coaching progressions to date. After two years as defensive backs coach for the Huskies, Lake added the title of co-defensive coordinator for two more years before officially being named defensive coordinator, his first coordinator position at any level.
After two years in that role, then-head coach Chris Petersen stepped down with Lake serving as his successor, earning his first head coaching gig in football. In Lake’s second year on the job, though, controversy arose when he hit a player in the facemask and shoved him in the back while separating him from a sideline scrum. He was suspended without pay and, a week later, let go.
After another hiatus, Lake spent the 2023 campaign back in the NFL as assistant head coach for the Rams, rejoining Morris, who was the defensive coordinator in Los Angeles at the time. When Morris was hired as head coach in Atlanta, he brought Lake in for his first NFL coordinator gig. The Falcons defense struggled, though, finishing 23rd in both points and yards allowed. According to Ian Rapoport of NFL Network, Morris became more involved in coaching the defense, realizing improvement was needed on that side of the ball.
Rodgers was working his fourth defensive line coaching gig in the NFL. He had previously served with the Broncos, Bears, and Chargers, coaching Pro Bowlers such as Elvis Dumervil, DeMarcus Ware, Akiem Hicks, and Joey Bosa. The pass rush was a big issue for the Falcons this season, as they finished with only 31 — three away from the lowest team total in the league.
Morris and Atlanta will join a number of other teams looking to fill a coordinator role. The team will likely hire the coordinator and let them fill the defensive line coaching role, unless Morris plans to continue to have control in coaching the defense. If that’s the case, Morris may hire his own preference for the position.
I know Atlanta Defense is never known as being particularly good but we had some above average talent this year….there was way too many Jekyll & Hyde performances this season for sure. Bryce Young looked like an MVP for a must win game for us…it was a bad performance and had no answers for him
Meh
Ok maybe an MVP was a stretch lol…but they looked like a legit playoff team that game for sure. Not sure of Lake is to blame or not. The pass rush did finally come around the last 5-6 games but was too late at that point.
Our pass rush is hilariously bad
I’ve said it before and will say it again…The only guarantees in life are Death, Taxes and the Falcons with no pass rush lol
I think he deserved another year. The Falcons D has been bad for over 20 years.
Black Monday is still rolling.
It’s weird to me that a defensive coordinator is the scapegoat under a defensive minded head coach.
I don’t think anybody needed to be a scapegoat this season, per se, but it’s easier to move on from Lake than Morris or Fontenot at this point. I think Morris, in particular, deserves some time even if he has his issues with clock management and whatnot.
May not be a scapegoat situation. When a new defense-minded coach fires his DC, it could be he doesn’t like how his scheme is being communicated or taught.
I’m sure it didn’t help that the Falcons allowed opposing QBs to complete 69.9% of their passes or whatever it was! Lake called plays this season (unless those duties were taken away at some point) and they have enough defensive talent to not have underachieved to the level they did, so I suppose it’s understandable.
Thank you. My 5 year old neice could probably coach better edge rushing
Yup, that will take care of everything….fire a coordinator or position coach….
Falcons filled a bunch of holes with short term FA’s that played well and will not be back. The new DC is going to have his hands full as the talent level will likely be even worse next year.
Falcons need to wrap their minds around this. Even lock-down corners will get beat if you have no base pass rush and have to cheat to get pressure. Average corners will play much better with a solid pass rush. Build the pass rush and let the rest fall into place.
More even than that, figure out your identity. One look at these wild card games and you can see that teams that can effectively run and stop the run are walking away with easy victories. If you cannot run the ball effectively you have to have a truly elite passing game, and that is much more difficult to build.
(SIDE NOTE – Are you listening Kirby? .. get rid of Bobo and don’t give ‘soft’ RB’s the carries .. Frazier would have beat ND by himself if he had just been given 25 carries).