Falcons hire Jimmy Lake as defensive coordinator, retain Marquice Williams as special teams coordinator
The Atlanta Falcons have filled their major coaching positions.
The team announced Monday the hiring of Rams assistant head coach Jimmy Lake as their new defensive coordinator.
The Falcons also officially announced the hiring of Zac Robinson as offensive coordinator, which had been reported last week, and confirmed that special teams coordinator Marquice Williams would retain his current role in new head coach Raheem Morris’ coaching staff.
Morris, who previously served as the defensive coordinator with the Rams, has now officially brought two of the other members of Sean McVay’s staff with him from Los Angeles to Atlanta, as Zac Robinson had previously been the Rams’ QB coach, and Lake an assistant HC.
Lake’s hiring also marks the third time he will coach alongside Morris. The pair first worked together for one season in 2007 when Lake was Morris’ assistant DBs coach with the Buccaneers. A few years later, Lake was hired as the DBs coach when Morris became head coach in Tampa Bay.
He then moved to coaching college football, notably becoming the defensive coordinator and then head coach of the Washington Huskies from 2020 to 2021. Lake returned to the NFL to join the Rams in 2023.
Now he comes to Atlanta with the chance to work with a Falcons’ defensive unit that saw major improvement in the 2023 season, upgrading from a No. 27 ranking in total yards allowed in 2022 to finishing at No. 11 this season.
Williams has acted as special teams coordinator for the Falcons for the last three seasons, and now will continue on in the role even through a changing of the guard in the rest of the coaching staff.
OC ✅
DC ✅
STC ✅ pic.twitter.com/XJILbxYYAx
— Atlanta Falcons (@AtlantaFalcons) January 30, 2024
