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The Atlanta Falcons have a new offensive coordinator and his name is....Steve Sarkisian. Huh. The Falcoholic has more details on that hire.
The Falcons needed to find a new person in charge of the offense with Kyle Shanahan going to San Francisco to be the 49ers’ head coach. Sarkisian is apparently what they came up with. Which is more than a little surprising, given that good old Sark has all of one year of NFL experience: as the Oakland Raiders quarterbacks coach in 2004.
Since then, he’s only been a college coach. As a successful offensive coach for USC, a decent head coach for Washington and then USC, before getting fired over repeated instances of showing up drunk.
Mostly, it seems like the Falcons hired him because he runs a similar scheme to Shanahan, and has a history with head coach Dan Quinn and his mentor, Pete Carroll. I’m hoping that turns out to be a bust, but then I’m a silly hating Bucs fan.