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Chuck Pagano Coming Out Of Retirement To Join Ravens Staff

By | at January 28, 2025 8:03 pm

Chuck Pagano is heading back to Baltimore. The veteran coach is coming out of retirement to join the Ravens as their senior secondary coach, per NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero.

“It is exciting to add coach Chuck Pagano to our defensive staff and continue to develop and grow our young and talent secondary,” coach John Harbaugh said in a statement. “Chuck brings a wealth of knowledge, experience and coaching talent to our team. He has deep ties to the program and is excited to get to work.”

The 64-year-old was a member of Harbaugh‘s first staff in Baltimore, where Pagano served as the secondary coach for three seasons before earning a promotion to defensive coordinator in 2011. He parlayed that job into a head coaching gig with the Colts, where he went 53-43 across six seasons.

Pagano was canned by the Colts following the 2018 campaign, and after serving as a consultant for a season, he spent two years as the Bears defensive coordinator. He retired following the 2021 campaign, stating a desire to spend more time with his family. In the last few years, he could be seen making appearances on The Pat McAfee Show.

Pagano will also reunite with Dean Pees, who succeeded him as defensive coordinator for six seasons before the first of his three retirements. Pees came out of his third retirement last fall to join Zach Orr‘s staff as an advisor and will remain with the Ravens in 2025, per ESPN’s Jamison Hensley. However, he will be a consultant rather than continuing in the full-time role he held this past season.

Inside linebackers coach Mark DeLeone, who succeeded Orr after he was promoted to DC, will not be returning to Harbaugh’s staff in 2025, per KRPC2’s Aaron Wilson. After both Roquan Smith and Patrick Queen made the Pro Bowl in 2023, the unit took a step back in 2024 with early struggles from Smith and inconsistent contributions from 2023 third-rounder Trenton Simpson.

As of now, though, Harbaugh is poised to retain much more of his staff than last offseason, which saw several coaches earn promotions with other teams. Among them was Dennard Wilson, the Ravens’ defensive backs coach in 2022 and 2023. He took a defensive coordinator job with the Titans, who, despite their struggles virtually everywhere else, finished second in passing yards allowed in 2024.

The Ravens, meanwhile, allowed the second-most passing yards last year, something Pagano will be looking to remedy in his new role. He has a long history of coaching talented players in the secondary, starting with Ed Reed in Baltimore. Pagano’s defenses in Indianapolis struggled at times, but he coached Vontae Davis and Mike Adams to Pro Bowls in 2014 and 2015. He was more successful in Chicago, especially in 2019 with a top-five pass defense led by Pro Bowlers Kyle Fuller and recent ex-Raven Eddie Jackson.

No Ravens from Pagano’s first stint in Baltimore remain on the roster, but he will reunite with Smith and Brent Urban, who he coached in Chicago.

Nikhil Mehta also contributed to this article.

6 comments Baltimore Ravens

Ravens Reunite With Ex-DC Dean Pees In Advisory Role

By | at October 9, 2024 12:13 pm

Former Ravens defensive coordinator Dean Pees is returning to Baltimore as a senior advisor to current defensive coordinator Zach Orr, according to Jeff Zrebiec of The Athletic.

“He’s a guy who knows me as a person, knows the system, knows the culture here,” Orr said. “He’s a Raven.”

Orr told Zrebiec that he stayed in contact through the season and recently reached out to bring on his former coach in an advisory role. “Ultimately, all I care about is us performing the best we can to help us win,” Orr continued.

Pees will enter a unique situation in which he advises a defensive coordinator he used to oversee as a player. Pees was Baltimore’s defensive coordinator when Orr signed with the Ravens as an undrafted rookie in 2014. Pees coached Orr to a second-team All-Pro selection in 2016 before a congenital spine condition forced the linebacker to retire.

Now, Pees will take on an advisory role to his former player, who has fielded the league’s best rushing defense while allowing the second-most passing yards of any defense. The Ravens are coming off a Week 5 shootout in which the defense was torched by Joe Burrow, Ja’Marr Chase, and Tee Higgins to the tune of 392 passing yards and five touchdowns.

Pees has coached in the NFL for 18 years, starting as linebackers coach under Bill Belichick in New England in 2004. John Harbaugh then hired Pees for the same role in Baltimore before promoting him to defensive coordinator in 2012. Pees led the defense to a Super Bowl victory in his first year calling plays and remained with the Ravens until his retirement in January 2018.

Pees’ retirement lasted just 28 days before he was hired by the Titans as defensive coordinator under Mike Vrabel, a position he held for two years before his second retirement in January 2020. This time, Pees stayed away from the NFL for a year before taking the Falcons’ defensive coordinator position under Arthur Smith. He then retired for the third time in January 2023, but could not turn down the opportunity to return to Baltimore, reunite with Orr, and help coach the Ravens’ talented defense.

4 comments Baltimore Ravens Transactions

2023 Offensive/Defensive Coordinator Search Tracker

By | at February 28, 2023 2:45 pm

As the head coaching carousel spun for several weeks, many teams made coordinator changes as well. Teams seeking new head coaches are conducting OC and DC searches, and a handful of other teams that did not make HC changes are also searching for top assistants.

This is a big year for offensive coordinator hires, with nearly half the league making changes. Here are the teams searching for new OCs and DCs. As new searches emerge, they will be added to the list.

Updated 3-1-23 (3:31pm CT)

Offensive Coordinators

Arizona Cardinals 

Baltimore Ravens (Out: Greg Roman)

Carolina Panthers (Out: Ben McAdoo)

  • Thomas Brown, tight ends coach, (Rams): Hired
  • Jim Bob Cooter, passing-game coordinator (Jaguars): Interviewed

Dallas Cowboys (Out: Kellen Moore)

  • Brian Angelichio, tight ends coach (Vikings): Interviewed 2/2
  • Thomas Brown, tight ends coach (Rams): Interviewed
  • Jeff Nixon, running backs coach (Panthers): Interviewed
  • Brian Schottenheimer, offensive consultant (Cowboys): Hired

Denver Broncos (Out: Justin Outten)

Houston Texans (Out: Pep Hamilton)

Indianapolis Colts (Out: Parks Frazier)

  • Jim Bob Cooter, passing-game coordinator (Jaguars): Hired
  • Tee Martin, wide receivers coach (Ravens): Interview requested

Kansas City Chiefs (Out: Eric Bieniemy)

  • Matt Nagy, quarterbacks coach (Chiefs): Hired

Los Angeles Chargers (Out: Joe Lombardi)

Los Angeles Rams (Out: Liam Coen)

New York Jets (Out: Mike LaFleur)

Philadelphia Eagles (Out: Shane Steichen)

Tampa Bay Buccaneers (Out: Byron Leftwich)

Tennessee Titans (Out: Todd Downing)

Washington Commanders (Out: Scott Turner)

Defensive Coordinators

Arizona Cardinals (Out: Vance Joseph)

Atlanta Falcons (Out: Dean Pees)

Buffalo Bills (Out: Leslie Frazier)

Carolina Panthers (Out: Al Holcomb)

  • Ejiro Evero, former defensive coordinator (Broncos): Hired
  • Vic Fangio, former head coach (Broncos): Interviewed
  • Marquand Manuel, safeties coach (Jets): Interviewed
  • Kris Richard, co-defensive coordinator (Saints): Interviewed

Denver Broncos

Houston Texans 

Los Angeles Chargers (Out: Renaldo Hill)

  • Derrick Ansley, defensive backs coach (Chargers): Promoted
  • Doug Belk, defensive coordinator (Houston): Interviewed
  • DeMarcus Covington, defensive line coach (Patriots): Interviewed

Miami Dolphins (Out: Josh Boyer)

Minnesota Vikings (Out: Ed Donatell)

New Orleans Saints (Out: Ryan Nielsen, Kris Richard)

  • Joe Woods, former defensive coordinator (Browns): Hired

Philadelphia Eagles (Out: Jonathan Gannon)

San Francisco 49ers (Out: DeMeco Ryans)

  • Vic Fangio, former head coach (Broncos): On radar
  • Chris Harris, defensive backs coach (Commanders): Interviewed 1/31
  • Kris Kocurek, defensive line coach (49ers): On radar
  • Steve Wilks, former interim head coach (Panthers): Hired
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Falcons DC Dean Pees Retires

By | at January 9, 2023 12:37 pm

For the third time in his coaching career, Dean Pees has announced his retirement. The Falcons defensive coordinator is stepping away from the NFL after two seasons in Atlanta and 18 total years as a staffer in the professional ranks.

Pees, 73, began his storied coaching career in college in 1979. In the decades to follow, he would go on to work on with seven different staffs, including the head coaching role at Kent State for six seasons. That led to his arrival in the NFL in 2004, as a linebackers coach with the Patriots It was under that title that he won his first Super Bowl. He became New England’s DC two seasons later, and remained with the franchise through 2009.

That stint was followed by a similar one (transitioning from LBs coach to DC) in Baltimore. Pees was in charge of the Ravens defense for six years, a span including the team’s Super Bowl campaign in 2012. He was expected to retire at the conclusion of the 2017 season (and, very briefly, did), with the Ravens ready to move on to Don Martindale as his replacement and Pees’ status as a highly successful coach secured.

Very shortly after that, however, Pees came back to serve as the Titans’ DC. He led Tennessee’s defense for two seasons, including a 2018 campaign which saw them rank amongst the league’s best in terms of both points and yards allowed. When he decided once again to step away from the game (this time for a full season), it was expected that he would end his career.

Instead, the Falcons – under new head coach and former Titans offensive coordinator Arthur Smith – were reported to be interested in luring him out of retirement, and they succeeded in doing so in January 2021. Pees oversaw Atlanta’s defense for the past two campaigns, one in which the team has struggled on both sides of the ball through their transition into a rebuilding phase. Last month, he suffered a health scare following a pregame collision which required a trip to the hospital, but he was able to return to his post the following week.

Overall, Pees now walks away after 14 years in charge of four teams’ defenses. D. Orlando Ledbetter of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution notes (on Twitter) that the Falcons will undergo a “wide search” for his replacement. Two candidates he names are LBs coach Frank Bush (who filled in for Pees in Week 15 following his hospitalization) and Packers defensive passing game coordinator Jerry Gray, who has eight years of DC experience dating back to his time with the Bills and Titans.

10 comments Atlanta Falcons Transactions

Falcons DC Dean Pees Cleared To Return

By | at December 22, 2022 12:51 pm

The Falcons had to make an emergency switch to their defensive coaching staff last week. A pregame collision resulted in defensive coordinator Dean Pees needing to be hospitalized and inside linebackers coach Frank Bush assuming play-calling duties.

Fortunately, Pees will be back with his team in its Week 16 game Saturday in Baltimore. The veteran DC received clearance to return, Michael Rothstein of ESPN.com notes.

Pees, who had come out of retirement to be Arthur Smith‘s defensive architect last year, was talking to FOX sideline reporter Kristina Pink during pregame warmups when he collided with Saints wide receiver Rashid Shaheed. Pees, 73, said he does not believe he lost consciousness, but due to blood thinner medication he is taking, doctors told him he could have bleeding in his brain. A CT scan cleared Pees, however.

“Just kind of looking up and going, ‘What the hell just happened?” Pees said of the collision, via Rothstein. “I thought I was good enough, beat up a little bit but don’t feel like I’m concussed or anything like that. They said, no, because of that, they wanted to take precautionary measures and put the stuff on my neck and all that kind of stuff. It looks terrible, but it’s precautionary.”

Bush, who served as the Texans’ defensive coordinator for two seasons under Gary Kubiak and finished the 2020 season as the Jets’ interim DC, said he initially thought Pees would coach from the box after his fall. But Smith informed him he would need to call plays for the Falcons, who lost 21-18 in their Saints rematch. Pees was back at the team’s practice facility Monday.

5 comments Atlanta Falcons

Titans Made Dean Pees Offer To Return

By | at January 26, 2021 8:03 pm

Dean Pees has pledged to join the Falcons as defensive coordinator, completing a second unretirement in the past four years. But the Titans were also interested in the veteran assistant.

After Pees committed to follow Arthur Smith to Atlanta, Mike Vrabel offered him a chance to return to Tennessee. However, the Titans sought Pees in a consultant-type role instead of a return to their DC post, Paul Kuharsky of PaulKuharsky.com reports.

We first heard of a Falcons-Pees partnership over a week ago, a day after Smith’s official hire, pointing to the ex-Titans OC prioritizing his former Tennessee coworker. The Falcons announced the hire less than a week later.

The Titans turned to outside linebackers coach Shane Bowen as their de facto DC last season. Bowen was the team’s primary defensive play-caller and remains on Vrabel’s staff. Pees, 71, unretired to join Vrabel’s staff in 2018 — after leaving the Ravens — but left Tennessee after the 2019 season and did not coach this past season. The Titans gave Steelers assistant Teryl Austin a DC interview earlier this month but have not filled the position. It remains uncertain if the team will do so.

While Pees will be tasked with elevating a Falcons defense that has struggled for the better part of the past three years, the Titans will need to make some improvements as well. They slid from 16th in defensive DVOA in 2019 to 29th this past season. Opponents also converted third downs at a historically great rate (51.9%) against the Titans, after the team ranked eighth in this category in 2019.

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Falcons Hire Dean Pees, Dave Ragone

By | at January 21, 2021 5:29 pm

Previously rumored Falcons plans came to fruition Thursday. Arthur Smith will bring Dave Ragone aboard as his offensive coordinator, and the first-year Falcons coach has a big role planned for the recently retired Dean Pees.

The former Titans defensive coordinator will again come out of retirement, committing to become the Falcons’ DC. The Falcons are also hiring Marquice Williams as their special teams coordinator.

While Pees and Smith served as Titans coordinators together in 2019, this will be Ragone’s first run as OC. Working as Bears QBs coach for the past five years, this will represent a move up for the ex-quarterback — the first known target for this post.

Ragone, 41, will not, however, have an immediate path to a play-calling role. Smith’s play-calling chops helped him draw interest from all seven head coach-seeking teams this year, and he confirmed he will call plays in Atlanta.

For Pees, this marks unretirement No. 2. Mentioned early as a likely to join Atlanta’s staff, Pees will skip any advisory or consulting roles and jump back into the play-calling fire.

Pees left his post as Ravens DC after the 2017 season but re-emerged as the Titans’ defensive boss ahead of the ’18 campaign. Pees, 71, stuck to retirement for a season this time around — which coincided with a Titans defensive regression — but will return to lead a fourth team’s defense. Pees served as Patriots defensive coordinator from 2006-09 and led the Ravens’ defense for six seasons beginning with their Super Bowl-winning 2012 slate. Of Pees’ 12 defenses, only one has ranked outside the top 12 in points allowed.

Williams has worked as assistant special teams coach with the Chargers and Lions, working in that capacity with Detroit for the past two seasons.

5 comments Atlanta Falcons Chicago Bears

Dean Pees Expected To Join Falcons

By | at January 16, 2021 1:56 pm

Dean Pees has two retirements under his belt since the end of the 2017 season, but the veteran defensive coordinator may be on the verge of yet again returning to work.

The former Titans, Ravens and Patriots DC has emerged on the Falcons’ radar, with CBS Sports’ Jason La Canfora noting Arthur Smith‘s first Atlanta staff is expected to include Pees in some capacity (Twitter link). Pees was Tennessee’s DC from 2018-19, overlapping with Smith’s lengthy run with the Titans. The two were coordinators together last season.

Pees, 70, retired from his post as Ravens DC — one he held from 2012-17 — three years ago but quickly backtracked on a pledge to step away by accepting an offer to become the Titans’ DC. But he left the game again following the ’19 season, preceding a significant step back from Tennessee’s defense. The Falcons may well be set to lure Pees back again. This would mark a fourth team and 17th NFL season for Pees, a longtime college coach who began his NFL career with the Patriots in 2004.

For the first time since their Bobby Petrino hire, the Falcons have the HC keys to an offense-oriented leader. This leaves a void on Atlanta’s defensive staff. While Pees may not be summoned to return to a coordinator post, the Falcons could certainly benefit from having him on their staff. Atlanta’s Dan Quinn hire did not coincide with consistent defensive success. They ranked as a top-half defense just twice in Quinn’s five-plus-year tenure and slipped to 29th in total defense this season.

3 comments Atlanta Falcons

Titans DC Dean Pees Retires

By | at January 20, 2020 2:42 pm

The NFL is losing a prominent assistant coach. Titans defensive coordinator Dean Pees announced his retirement during a press conference Monday.

Pees, 70, started coaching college football in 1979 and has been in the NFL since 2004. The Titans just lost secondary coach Kerry Coombs to Ohio State earlier today, so Mike Vrabel will have some work to do retooling his defensive staff. Pees got his NFL start with the Patriots, where he served as Vrabel’s linebackers coach and defensive coordinator. Pees left New England after the 2009 season, and went to Baltimore. He served as linebackers coach and then defensive coordinator with the Ravens for the next eight seasons, winning Super Bowl XLVII with the team.

Pees has been on the staffs of some legendary head coaches, including Nick Saban, Lou Holtz, and Bill Belichick. He initially retired after the 2017 season, but that retirement lasted only a few weeks. After Vrabel landed the job in Tennessee, he quickly lured his old coach out of retirement. Tennessee’s defense was up and down during the regular season, but Pees had them playing really well in the playoffs. He was able to put together a gameplan that completely shutdown Lamar Jackson and the vaunted Ravens running game in the divisional round.

8 comments Tennessee Titans

Titans DC Dean Pees To Return In 2019

By | at January 4, 2019 5:22 pm

Titans defensive coordinator Dean Pees informed the team that he intends to return to the team for the 2019 season, Jim Wyatt of the team’s website writes. 

In November, the 69-year-old coordinator was taken to the hospital for a “medical issue” but returned to the team the following day and didn’t miss a game the rest of the season. At the end of the 2017 season, Pees was expected to retire when he left the Ravens but joined the Titans’ staff a month later as the team’s new defensive coordinator under first-year head coach Mike Vrabel.

In his first season with the team, Pees led the Titans to the No. 3-ranked scoring defense and the unit allowed the eighth-fewest yards. That was the first time Tennessee ranked in the top 10 in both categories since the Jeff Fisher-led squad went 13-3 in 2008. In December, Pees’ unit registered a 17-0 win over the Giants for the team’s first shutout since the 2000 campaign.

A longtime defensive coordinator in New England (2006-09) and Baltimore (2012-17), Pees boasts 46 years of coaching experience and a handful of top-10 units.

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