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Mateo Kambui

AFC North Coaching Updates: Sullivan, Ravens, Bengals

February 24th, 2024 at 4:38pm CST by Ely Allen

With the Patriots and Bill Belichick parting ways this offseason, the AFC North is now home to the NFL’s two longest-tenured head coaches, and though the Steelers haven’t had a change at head coach in 17 years, they were required to make some adjustments to the offensive coaching staff this offseason. We’ve reported on a number of staff changes on offense after the hiring of new coordinator Arthur Smith, but the team’s recent finalized staff announcement provided us with a few more updates.

We saw that Pittsburgh made the call to replace former quarterbacks coach Mike Sullivan with Tom Arth two weeks ago, but we now see that Sullivan will be retained on staff in the role of senior offensive assistant. Additionally, Smith seems to have brought two coaches with him from Atlanta. Former Falcons specials teams assistant Matt Baker and Bill Walsh Diversity Coaching Fellow Mateo Kambui, who worked with Atlanta’s offensive line, have both been brought on in the role of offensive assistant.

On defense and special teams, only two changes were noted. First, we already saw the departure of assistant defensive backs coach Gerald Alexander in the announcement that he would become the safeties coach in Las Vegas. Second, special teams quality control coach Matt Tomsho does not appear on the team’s new coaching roster and doesn’t seem to have been retained. Neither position was filled with a new staffer.

Here are a couple other staff updates coming out of the AFC North:

  • With former associate head coach and defensive line coach Anthony Weaver departing for the defensive coordinator job in Miami, the Ravens needed to find someone new to coach their talented defensive line. According to Jonathan Jones of CBS Sports, Baltimore has found their man in former Baylor defensive line coach Dennis Johnson. A former defensive tackle at LSU, Johnson has coached defensive lines at the college level for both his alma mater and the Bears in Waco. His best defensive lines were at LSU in 2018 and Baylor in 2021, coaching players like Siaki Ika and K’Lavon Chaisson.
  • The Bengals have brought in a collegiate staffer, as well, per Pete Thamel of ESPN, hiring former Oregon offensive analyst Jordan Salkin to their staff as an offensive assistant. Salkin’s experience at the college level was focused on the quarterbacks position, and he fills the role in Cincinnati left vacant with Fredi Knighten being promoted to assistant quarterbacks coach.

NFC Coaching Updates: Bears, Falcons, Engram

March 4th, 2023 at 9:26am CST by Ely Allen

The offseason giveth and the offseason taketh away as the Bears learned this past week with the addition and subtraction of two coaching assistants earlier in the week.

After the departure of assistant offensive line coach Austin King to join Sean Payton‘s new staff in Denver under the same title, Chicago hired longtime Titans assistant Luke Steckel to fill the role. This will be Steckel’s first time working specifically with offensive linemen in the NFL. After four years in Cleveland as an assistant to the head coach, Steckel joined the Titans in 2013 as an offensive assistant/special assistant to the head coach. He cycled through other roles with the team over the years including assistant wide receivers coach and his most recent role of the past two seasons as tight ends coach.

Steckel is credited with having contributed to the success of wide receiver A.J. Brown during his rookie season in Tennessee and quarterback Ryan Tannehill in the year that he won Comeback Player of the Year. As a tight ends coach, Steckel worked with newcomer Austin Hooper and rookie Chigoziem Okonkwo. Both finished with similar statistics, combining for 894 yards and five touchdowns. According to Pro Football Focus (subscription required), Hooper had the 12th-best receiving grade of any tight end in the NFL while Okonkwo finished third behind only Travis Kelce and George Kittle. Steckel will now be assisting with coaching an offensive line that utilizes strong youth pieces like Teven Jenkins and Braxton Jones.

Here are a few more coaching updates from around the NFC:

  • The Falcons have made some updates to their staff from last year, according to Falcons features reporter Ashton Edmunds. Steve Jackson, who shockingly was hired in the position of senior offensive assistant last year despite his years of defensive coaching experience, has rightfully returned to the defensive side of the ball as the team’s secondary coach. Another assistant expected to switch sides of the ball, Nick Perry will move from assistant defensive backs coach to assistant wide receivers coach. Former defensive assistant Lanier Goethie has been promoted to defensive front specialist. The team has also added longtime college coaching assistant Dave Huxatable into his first NFL role of senior defensive assistant. Additionally, former John Carroll offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Matt Baker has been added to the staff as special teams assistant. Lastly, the team has hired Steven King and Patrick Kramer as offensive assistants, Mario Jeberaeel as the special projects: defense coach, Shawn Flaherty as the assistant offensive line coach, Michael Gray as a football analyst, and Mateo Kambui as the Bill Walsh Diversity Coaching Fellow assigned to work with the offensive line.
  • With Drew Terrell‘s departure to Arizona as passing game coordinator and wide receivers coach, the Commanders have a vacancy to fill at wide receivers coach. According to Nicki Jhabvala of the Washington Post, one candidate who has been interviewed for the role is former NFL wide receiver Bobby Engram. After his retirement as a player, the longtime Seahawk immediately went into coaching, signing with the rival 49ers as an offensive assistant. Since then, Engram has worked his way up, going from coaching wide receivers in the college ranks at Pitt to earning the same position in Baltimore. With the Ravens, Engram earned his paycheck putting together veteran receiver groups for quarterback Joe Flacco. In healthy years, Engram coached up impressive duos such as Steve Smith–Torrey Smith and Mike Wallace-Steve Smith. When injuries decimated the team he helped Kamar Aiken to a breakout season, pieced together what he could out of a group that included Wallace, Jeremy Maclin, and Chris Moore, and got a respectable output from a corps of John Brown, Willie Snead, and Michael Crabtree. Engram moved to tight ends coach for the Ravens in 2019 and helped in the emergence of star tight end Mark Andrews, who earned two Pro Bowl bids and a first-team All-Pro selection under Engram. Last year, Engram took the role of offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at Wisconsin, but an interview with the Commanders could indicate his willingness to return to the NFL.