Falcons announce new coaches, including Jacquies Smith as OLBs coach
The Falcons announced Thursday that they are keeping Shawn Flaherty and Patrick Kramer on the coaching staff. Flaherty returns as an assistant offensive line coach and Patrick Kramer is back as an offensive assistant.
In addition, the Falcons hired John Griffin as director of player performance, Josh Nelson as director of performance science, Paul Constantine as associate director of strength and conditioning, Erik Jernstrom as assistant director of strength and conditioning, Jacquies Smith as outside linebackers coach, D.J. Williams as offensive assistant/assistant quarterbacks coach and Rob Dadona as manager of coaching operations.
Griffin spent the past three seasons with the Rams, where he was an assistant strength and conditioning coach from 2021-22 and associate director of strength and conditioning in 2023.
Nelson served as an assistant athletic director at Penn State from 2019-24. Nelson started at Penn State as an assistant athletic director for applied health and performance science before being promoted to assistant athletic director of high performance for the Nittany Lions football team.
Constantine arrives in Atlanta after four years (2020-23) at the University of Alabama. He started as an assistant athletic performance coach for the Crimson Tide from 2020-22 before being promoted to director of applied science in 2023.
Jernstrom spent the past three years as an adjunct professor at Linfield University in Oregon.
Smith was at the University of Texas in 2023 as an assistant edge coach.
Williams coached the past five seasons in New Orleans as an offensive assistant.
Dadona spent the past five seasons with the Jets. Dadona started as a football operations assistant with the Jets before becoming an assistant to the head coach in 2021.
Flaherty originally joined the Falcons as a football analyst in 2022 before being named an assistant offensive line coach last February.
Kramer originally joined the Falcons as a football analyst in 2021 and spent two seasons in that role before being named an offensive assistant last February.
