Falcons Announce Latest Staffing Decisions
With new head coach Kevin Stefanski and new general manager Ian Cunningham finding their place in Atlanta, the duo has slowly gone about, making decisions for how to fill out the staff. The two haven’t chosen to clean house, announcing a mixture of new hires and staffers to be retained, and that didn’t stop with the latest announcements.
First, the Falcons announced that Tokunbo Abanikanda, who served as Atlanta’s director of college scouting for the past two years, will remain in Atlanta for 2026. In fact, he’ll do so with a promotion to the title of director of scouting. Abanikanda was hired by the Falcons in 2012, four years into former general manager Thomas Dimitroff‘s 13-year tenure in Atlanta. He was retained on the staff of Dimitroff’s successor, Terry Fontenot, and has now survived the turnover to a third general manager in Cunningham.
A new hire in the front office was also announced over a week ago, when Jacqueline Roberts was named the new manager of coaching operations for the Falcons. Roberts got her start with Cleveland two years ago as an intern working with team logistics. Last year, she was promoted to coordinator of coaching logistics for the Browns, and she’ll now follow Stefanski to Atlanta for a similar role.
On the coaching side, the Falcons also saw one staffer retained and one brought from Cleveland. Senior defensive assistant Dave Huxtable was the staffer to be retained in his role on retained defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich‘s unit. A collegiate coach of 40 years, including stints as a defensive coordinator at North Carolina, UCF, Pittsburgh, and NC State, Huxtable joined the Falcons back in 2023, under then-defensive coordinator Ryan Nielsen. He was retained under Nielsen’s successor, Jimmy Lake, and under Ulbrich, as well. Huxtable works with the defensive line, namely the pass rushers, and saw rookies James Pearce and Jalon Walker combine for 16.0 sacks in 2025.
The Cleveland import on the coaching staff is Michael Bearden, who was the recipient of the Browns’ Bill Willis Coaching Fellowship in 2025. Bearden spent two years as assistant wide receivers coach at Notre Dame before landing his first fellowship with the Bears in 2024. He’s now followed Stefanski to Atlanta to serve as a Falcons’ coaching fellow/offensive assistant.
NFC Front Office Notes: Eagles, Rosenberg, Falcons, Giants, Panthers, Bears
Jake Rosenberg‘s Eagles exit is now official. After a report earlier this offseason indicated Rosenberg would step down following a 12-year tenure with the team, the Eagles’ VP of football administration made the announcement (via PHLY.com’s Zach Berman). A friend of GM Howie Roseman‘s dating back to elementary school, Rosenberg assisted the Eagles on the salary cap front. The team has frequently been ahead of the curve in this area, as its 2024 offseason reinforced. It is not known where Rosenberg is headed, but this marks another key departure in the Eagles’ front office. Two years ago, four of Roseman’s lieutenants — Brandon Brown, Ian Cunningham, Catherine Raiche, Andy Weidl — left for assistant GM roles elsewhere. Another key piece will need to be replaced now.
Post-draft front office changes are common around the league. Here is the latest from the NFC:
- Despite not being a Terry Fontenot hire, Tokunbo Abanikanda will rise to a key post in the Falcons‘ front office. The team is promoting the veteran scout to its college scouting director post, InsidetheLeague.com’s Neil Stratton tweets. Abanikanda has been with the Falcons since midway through Thomas Dimitroff‘s GM tenure, arriving in 2012. He will now take a pivotal role in the team’s draft preparation. Elsewhere in the Falcons’ front office, the team’s player personnel coordinator — Brian Zeches — is moving on, Stratton adds. Formerly an exec in Washington and Kansas City, Zeches was named to this post during the 2023 offseason.
- In addition to adding Chris Snee to their scouting staff, the Giants are making multiple in-house promotions. They are bumping Nick La Testa to assistant director of pro scouting and naming Charles Tisch their football operations manager, The Athletic’s Dan Duggan tweets. Charles Tisch, who had been a football ops assistant, is the nephew of Giants co-owner Steve Tisch. With the Giants since 2017, La Testa had previously worked on the scouting level for the team.
- A Carolina-to-Washington pipeline formed during Ron Rivera‘s NFC East stay, but the Commanders will now lose an exec to the Panthers. Carolina is hiring David Whittington for a college scouting role, according to Stratton. Whittington had been with Washington since 2009, holding several positions. Most recently, he worked as a national scout with the Commanders. The Panthers are also adding Eric Eager to their analytics department, per Stratton. Eager, a former Pro Football Focus staffer, worked most recently as the vice president of SumerSports, an analytics-based website that also employs Dimitroff presently.
- The Bears are going through with a round of promotions as well. GM Ryan Poles is elevating Breck Ackley from assistant college scouting director to the director post, while Stratton notes national scout Francis St. Paul will become the assistant director. Area scouts Brendan Rehor and John Syty are also moving to national scouting roles.