FLOWERY BRANCH, Ga. — The Atlanta Falcons have completed an interview with Grady Brown for their open defensive coordinator position, the organization announced Friday.
Brown is the fifth candidate to be interviewed by the Falcons since their defensive coordinator search began earlier this week. Atlanta previously interviewed Don "Wink" Martindale (Tuesday), Jeff Ulbrich (Wednesday), Lou Anarumo (Thursday) and Derrick Ansley (Thursday).
Learn more about the Falcons' next candidate below.
Date of interview: Friday, Jan. 17
Last stop: Secondary coach for the Pittsburgh Steelers
Resume highlights:
- Pittsburgh Steelers, 2021-24: Brown just completed his fourth season as the secondary coach. The Steelers gave Brown his first NFL job, announcing his hire eight days after the University of House named him its cornerbacks coach.
- College football coach, 2001-20: Brown spent two decades at the college level to kickstart his coaching career. He was most recently the defensive coordinator at McNeese State University in 2020 and the co-defensive coordinator and defensive backs coach at Old Dominion University in 2019. In total, he coached at a total of 11 programs during this time. His most notable time was with the University of South Carolina from 2012-15 as the defensive backs coach.
Why he's a candidate: The Steelers are known for their strong defensive presence, and Brown has been a part of that culture for the last four seasons.
This past year was no exception, as Pittsburgh was No. 1 in turnovers, No. 8 in points allowed and No. 12 in yards allowed. Looking at the secondary specifically, since that's Brown's area of expertise, the Steelers had 17 interceptions in 2024, the third-most in the league — 11 of those interceptions came from the secondary. For comparison, the Falcons had 12 interceptions as a team with eight coming from the secondary.
In 2022, Browns' second season in Pittsburgh, the Steelers actually tied for the NFL lead with 20 interceptions. Safety Minkah Fitzpatrick was responsible for six of those, which were the most by a Steelers player in a single season since 2010. Fitzpatrick earned his third AP All-Pro first-team honor that year.
If looking at the college portion of Brown's resume, his time at South Carolina stands out most, as the Gamecocks ranked 11th nationally in 2012 total defense and 12th nationally in 2013 scoring defense. South Carolina also finished second in the SEC and 13th in the nation with 18 interceptions in 2013.
Strikes against: Brown has never called plays or been a defensive coordinator at the NFL level. He's still rather new to the league overall. The Steelers are the only professional team with whom he has full-time experience.
Even in the college realm, Brown only held the title of sole defensive coordinator twice – with McNeese State in 2020 and Birmingham Southern University in 2016. Neither is an FBS school.
Otherwise, either professionally or collegiately, Brown has mainly been a position coach.
The Falcons already went through a season with Jimmy Lake, who had a lot of NCAA experience but was a first-time NFL play-caller. Do they want to take that route again?
Also, most of Brown's work has been with the secondary. The Falcons already have assistant head coach/defense Jerry Gray, who specializes in that area, in addition to head coach Raheem Morris.
