Earlier in the week, the Falcons requested to interview Mike Macdonald for their vacant head coaching position. Shortly after, the club announced they’d completed the interview.
This is the very first interview the club has conducted since it parted ways with Arthur Smith on Monday, and it couldn’t have been a better candidate.
The 36-year-old has a stellar track record calling plays on the defensive side of the ball. This season, he’s constructed a Ravens unit that is the top defense in the league, allowing a league-leading 16.5 points per game and recording a league-leading 60 sacks.
It’s poetic that Macdonald began his NFL coaching career as an intern in Baltimore in 2014 and could very well parlay this incredible 2023 campaign into a head coaching opportunity.
As I said, he began his journey in 2014 as an intern and worked his way up to a defensive assistant the following year for two seasons then was promoted again in 2017 to the title of defensive backs coach before moving to the linebackers for the final three seasons.
His first big break came in 2021 when he returned to the college ranks for a season as Michigan’s defensive coordinator under Jim Harbaugh where he led one of the top units in the country. Then in 2022, he returned to Baltimore to coordinator the Ravens defense under the other Harbaugh, a role he’s maintained since.
Falcons fans might recognize the name Mike Macdonald because he’s a local guy. He grew up in Roswell, Georgia, and attended the University of Georgia, where he remained after graduation and coaching the safeties.
As the NFL trends toward young, offensive gurus, Macdonald is a breath of fresh air as a young, defensive genius. The Falcons could do much worse than Mike Macdonald, so fans shouldn’t be discouraged by his expertise lying on the defensive side of the ball.
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Fred Kfoury III/Icon Sportswire
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