Falcons fans grade the Jeff Ulbrich hire

Atlanta Falcons Media Availability — Photo by Tim Warner/Getty Images

And the grades are not nearly as bad as I expected!

Earlier this week, we asked y’all to grade Jeff Ulbrich’s return to Atlanta as the team’s new defensive coordinator. We shared our thoughts in this staff roundtable, but we wanted to know your perspective.

And the results surprised me a little, because fans by and large do not hate this hire.

A whopping 70 percent of fans who responded give the hire a C or higher letter grade. Here’s the reasoning behind some of these survey responses:

ericbaker0

I’ve stated my position on these hires, which isn’t very different than most everybody else’s. One part that bugs me is the collective impact of not having a great coach on the staff. I think we all want Robinson to be that, but I have concerns that he’s going to be anything more than average based on some of the really weird game plans and inconsistent play calling last year. He can certainly cross that bridge next year if he continues to get better.

The bigger part, however, is the fact that multiple other teams are also signing and hiring coaches and coordinators while we keep making “meh” decisions. The Falcons chose to keep Morris (whom I believe has very little chance of succeeding here) for at least one more season, which gives our competitors the chance to sign a HC who might actually be a winner. This is net loss. I don’t know that the Saints will get a better HC than Morris–I just know that, if I’m the Saints, I’m very happy Morris is the Falcons’ HC.

This is the underlying issue of my unhappiness with the franchise right now. There is nothing in the organization that inspires confidence.

Mr.Pentis

I haven’t been this excited since they hired Morris. I give it a C+.

Hawes6

B+

Everyone whining about Morris hiring his buddies…Yeah, I think that’s a good thing. You want everyone pulling in the same direction and you want to trust your assistants. Given how these guys work – intensively in each other’s pockets for six months – I want them comfortable with each other. A “team of rivals” in the NFL sounds dysfunctional.

Unlike Lake, Ulbrich has been an NFL DC. He has been an NFL DC for a successful defense, even if he’s not going to have the talent in Atlanta that he had in New Jersey. I don’t see the sort of fundamental communication errors that Morris said were plaguing the defense occurring under Ulbrich.

I have no problem seeing Ulbrich getting this defense to “meh”. Which is a huge step forward at this point.

ParaMagician22

C/Incomplete. We’re only slightly familiar with Ulbrich’s work. We can tell what we’ve seen as far as his work with the Jets, but the pieces were there.

If he can coach up the LB play, and bring in a good dline coach, it’s a B/B+ for me. Bonus points if he can bring in some quality, not overpriced defensive FAs.

It’s not a sexy hire, but not all sexy hires work out. My concerns lie with the “buddy” program baloney that’s going on with the coaching staff. It just reminds me of Quinn and his bro philosophy.

Forget the “bend don’t break” defense – give me smash mouth football. Give me a stout, gritty defense. No more arm tackles. No more “almost” getting to the QB.

If Ulbrich can do that, awesome. If not, well…let’s hope for new coaches next year.

bbones2828

This is a comfortable hire… and Ulbrich has probably gotten better over the past 5 years or so…but i really think it won’t matter much if the 2025 Falcons can’t find their way to the post season, all coaching and front office should be gone… The defensive roster will likely be bare bones outside of Bates and AJT, there not much to work with.

this organization has been in free fall since 2020.TF has NOT set anything up for immediate OR future success (he possibly has with Penix, but too many mistakes before that).

I’m not rooting for them to fail, but i would be very surprised if they all succeeded in 2025. there’s been too many mistakes the past 4 years that have lead to this point. I think there will be an all new cast of characters going into 2026 (and hopefully a GM how knows what he’s doing).

Tessie_Juggle58

B-/C+ I guess. Part of this is just the continuation of the way things have been done. There is a circle and network of friends that seem to be the pool we pull from. It feels like the other interviews aren’t serious because everyone called this one before an interview was set up. It also means we don’t know how much our coaches have to get in line with organizational approach instead of having the freedom to coach and help shape a new approach and identity. It hasn’t been working. I’m ok to stop. Also we weren’t world beaters with Morris as interim HC and Ulbrich as interim DC. It’s not like they pulled off some magic act and we had to get the band back together.

That being said, Ulbrich has actually coached a successful defense in the NFL in multiple consecutive seasons now. Yes the Jets defense imploded last year after they fired the HC and Ulbrich moved to interim HC, but the defense was doing fine when he was just functioning as the DC. There is something refreshing about hiring a guy who you can look at his resume and say, “See! He has done it before.” Because last year you couldn’t say that about our HC, OC, or DC. I agree with the sentiment that this feels like the same old, same old kind of hire, but maybe it’s actually not?

OtisCampbellFanClub

Definitely don’t like this “Buddy” 2.0 hire.

If it isn’t a buddy hire, then its a controllable hire . . . meaning he’ll do what Raheem says and not buck his system/plan. For me, that translates into Raheem has just this year to figure things out on D and/or he’s shown the exit.

kalesi

I just don’t believe there is a silver bullet fix here. Ulbrich makes as much sense as anyone.

I think the 2025 Falcons are going to score points. The defense is not going to have to be elite. They are just going to have to be good enough.

A point that many people made is that it’s very difficult to grade a hire without seeing one second of their performance in this specific role. The Falcons are currently over $7m over the cap and are already going to need to be creative to make the salary cap situation work through free agency and the draft. It’ll make it more difficult to bring in the talent Ulbrich needs to shore up the defense and ensure improved play.

But Ulbrich does return with more experience, including play-calling experience with the Jets. And he was solid in his previous stint with Atlanta. I think it’s reasonable to temper our expectations, and it’s ok to be suspicious about the buddy-buddy nature of the hire, but the possibility definitely exists that Ulbrich is the right guy for the job. Here’s hoping that’s the case.