With Matt Ryan in place as president of football, the Falcons are searching for their new head coach.

Terrin Waack

The Atlanta Falcons are in search of the organization's 20th head coach in franchise history. The organization parted ways with Raheem Morris after the team's final game of the 2025 season. A new-look leadership groupincluding Falcons President of Football Matt Ryanbegan the hunt to find his successor with the assistance of ZRG Partners and Sportsology Group.

"Our search committee will be structured a little bit differently than it has been in the past,"Falcons owner Arthur Blank said Thursday. "[It will] still be made up of a component of people that represent our leadership in all areas of our businesses, but we're going to put heavy emphasis, we're hiring this president of football first. That's the goal, and over the next couple of days, we have a series of interviews set up. We want to get that person in their seat and have them lead the interviews for the head coach and general manager position going forward."

The Falcons will announce these interviews after they are completed with each candidate. We'll provide those updates here, along with relevant information and background about each candidate.

The NFL has specific rules for how and when teams can conduct these interviews.They are outlined here.

The Falcons have officially completed an interview with Aden Durde for their head coach position.

Current role: Durde has been the defensive coordinator for the Seattle Seahawks since 2024.

Resume highlights:

• Durde joined the Seahawks at the same time as head coach Mike Macdonald in 2024. Immediately, Macdonald and his staff produced a 10-7 record last season and then a 14-3 record this season. Seattle didn't make the playoffs last year, but the Seahawks recently clinched the NFC West title and No. 1 seed in the conference going into the postseason. It was the franchise's first division title since 2020 and the first appearance as the top seed since 2014. The team's 14 wins this season set a new franchise record.
• Durde has been with four NFL teams since 2014 and spent the most time with the Dallas Cowboys during two different stints. He got his start in the league as a coaching intern for the Cowboys in 2014-15 and then returned to Dallas from 2021-23 as the defensive line coach.
• Durde previously coached overseas in the BAFA National Leagues. He was the London Warriors' defensive coordinator from 2011-16, overlapping a bit with his NFL responsibilities in the later years. Durde is originally from North London, England.

Local connection: Durde has worked for the Falcons before, serving as a coaching intern in 2016, a defensive assistant in 2018-19 and the outside linebackers coach in 2020. Another possible tie is Jeff Ulbrich, who was the interim defensive coordinator during Durde's final season in Atlanta. Ulbrich rejoined the Falcons last season as the defensive coordinator and turned the unit's pass rush around, going from second to last in sacks in 2024 to second in sacks in 2025.

Falcons owner Arthur Blank said Thursday he won't dictate to the new head coach how to build the staff, butBlank would recommend retaining Brichgiven the defense's recent improvement under his guidance.

Why he's a candidate: Durde has familiarity with Atlanta and the Falcons, and since he left the organization, he has only bettered his resume. Durde went to the playoffs in each of his three consecutive seasons with the Cowboys. All three years, they finished 12-5. The lowest the Dallas defense ever ranked overall was 19th in yards allowed in 2021, which was Durde's first season. However, the unit was seventh in points allowed that year, so it balanced out a bit. Otherwise, the Cowboys' defense upgraded to fifth in both aspects during Durde's final season in Dallas. There was year-over-year improvement.

Given the Falcons' recent desire for an improved pass rush, the Cowboys were tied for 20th in sacks the season before Durde arrived. They then tied for third once and 13th twice with Durde in charge of the defensive line.

A similar theme happened in Seattle once Durde joined there. The Seahawks went from tied for 11th in sacks in 2023 to then tied for eighth then seventh between 2024-25. The unit as a whole followed a similar trajectory. Before Durde, the Seahawks were 25th in points allowed and 20th in yards allowed. After, they were 14th and 23, respectively, in 2024 and first and sixth, respectively, in 2025.

All that to say, with Durde's help, defenses have statistically gotten better. That's appealing to a team like the Falcons since they have a rather young defense core, including two 2025 first-round draft picks in edge rushers Jalon Walker and James Pearce Jr. Not to mention the two other draft picks, safety Xavier Watts and cornerback Billy Bowman Jr. And then there's defensive linemen Bradon Dorlus and Ruke Orhorhoro, who just completed their second season. There's a lot of talent to grow and develop.

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