 Hello, Coach Williams. Welcome to Atlanta. Just looking at your bio and now in the WASH minority coaching program, take us through that and how your career has proceeded, kind of like they had envisioned the program would work. Nice meeting you, Darrell. The Bill Walsh program is something I hold dearly to my heart. I got the opportunity to intern in 13 and 14 with the Chicago Bears and in 15 with the Detroit Lions. And it was a great opportunity for myself to, one, learn how the NFL organizations ran, both on and off the field. And it was an opportunity, too, for myself as a coach to bring those tools to the program that was working or coaching with the University of South Dakota. But while I was there, I worked with a lot of mentors of mine, starting with Joe De Camillas, Mel Tucker, was one of them that pushed me to go to the NFL level and try my best to coach at the highest level. And another guy was Jim Caldwell, that I hold dear to my heart. And he did a great job of helping me and influencing me to get better as an individual both on and off the field. You know, so from those opportunities, doing them three consecutive years, like during training camp and OTAs, and then, you know, to move forward and get the opportunity in 2016 to, you know, interview and get an NFL job. You know, something that means a lot to me. And, you know, I try to push other minority coaches that are in the college or high school level to take full advantage of the opportunity and go and coach at the highest level. You know, one thing too, Darrell, like Jim Caldwell, he flew me out there during OTAs or during phase two of 2015 season off season. And I sat down and I interviewed with him for two hours. And, you know, I didn't know until after the fact, after I got the internship, he's like, you know, I put you through the interview process and I was like, why for the internship? He's like, no, this will be an NFL interview and I want you to get experience at it. And that held me in 2016, you know, with my first NFL interview with the San Diego Characters. So, you know, both on and off the field, it was an opportunity just to go out there and coach my butt off and, you know, provide, you know, information and tools for the college players. I was coaching at the University of South Dakota and, you know, you'd rather be prepared without the opportunity than prepared, unprepared with the opportunity. So, you know, I just try my best to, you know, use all those tools as a coach and for my mentors to put myself in that position to, you know, help others get better. And what do you hope to bring to the units here in Atlanta? What were your philosophies, people we see? You know, you had a great return game in Detroit. They need that here. What do you want your units to look like as the coordinator of the special teams? You know, number one, you know, it's going to be about the men in that room, our players, you know, the players, they'll bring the calls to life. And it's going to start with, you know, having high effort, you know, great plays are made from great effort. So seeing those guys go and, you know, and play with great effort from the beginning of the snap, wherever the balls kick to the end of the whistle. And the other thing is the mindset, just the attitude and that they bring to the, you know, bring to the table when it comes to on the field in the meeting room. Once we walk into the building, it's all the guys in there, they understand this. We don't have to do is we get to do it as a privilege. So just having that mindset of, you know, being able to go out there play and, you know, want to be able to be dominant. And then lastly, we want to be great with our fundamentals. You know, both, you know, when it's in the kicking game or send the return game coverage or, you know, return game, we're going to be great at our fundamentals, play mean and clean football. So we want to be mean with our tech, you know, with our technique and be physical, but we're going to play within the rules of the game and use great fundamentals because that's going to be key for us. If all 11 men could do that on the field, including our specialists, I think we're going to be in a great, we're like the outcome at the end of the season. Tori McElhaney, the athletic. Hi Coach, it's very nice to meet you. I've been told to go back and pull up the Lions tape from the past season that any tape that I see of your coverage units that the team tackles very well. And I was just curious kind of how your time coaching defense at various stops in your career and with the Chargers has impacted your philosophy as a special teams coordinator now. Oh yes, Tori, it's nice to meet you. You know, I started off as a defensive coach and then got into the special teams world and, you know, being a special teams coach, you're coaching offensive position and the defensive position. Anytime we're in coverage, you know, we're trying to eliminate scores and try to get the ball back. Our intentions when we're covering is trying to get the ball back for our offense and putting our offense in great field position. And then, you know, so when it comes to that, you know, when it comes to like one of the biggest things I think that helped me was coaching D line, you know, I coach D line for three years, my last three years in college. And that really put an emphasis on teaching pad level, hand placement, you know, footwork, you know, running through contact rather than running to contact. So all those things really helped me as a special teams coach and I try to correlate what we do as a team, whether it's, you know, with the defensive coaches on staff and trying to correlate that and make sure we have the same, you know, vocabulary philosophy when it comes to tackling, whether it's in space or on close quarters, and also to taking the ball away. So those are things that we try to carry over so when we're in the classroom we're efficient with our teaching. Nice. Okay, cool. Um, my next question was just kind of going through this, this whole process. How did you and Arthur Smith first cross paths and kind of what made you want to come to Atlanta and be a part of a staff? You know, I was, you know, I want to thank Arthur Smith to for the opportunity. I got it all from him not to, you know, not too long after he got the job. And, you know, we spoke over the phone and, you know, did my interview with him. And it was great because, you know, his philosophies that I believe wholeheartedly in his philosophies and what he believes in, you know, helping our team grow and involve, you know, one thing he talks about is, you know, our team going into OTAs will be a different team by the time we finish, you know, training camp. And then by the time we finish training camp, our team will be different by the time we finish into the season. And that's a big correlation to what special teams is. You know, we're dealing with the back half of the roster, some starters on offense and defense, and it's going to fluctuate throughout the season. So if we have those, you know, we have a base fundamentals of who we are and what we're about, having players understand why what we're doing, inspiring players and motivated them with respect to the game, you know, that's going to help us in the long run. So, you know, philosophy wise, we met eye to eye when it came to a lot of those different teaching modalities, which I thought was awesome. And when talking about the roster and how we envision the roster down the road, and how we want to play special teams. And then not only that, how special teams can help impact the offense and defense, you know, just playing complimentary football and then offense and defense compliment the special teams. And being able to tie that all together when in situational football to put our team in the best position to have a great outcome at the end of the game. So, you know, those, those conversations are great. I'm excited to work with coach Arthur, you know, Arthur Smith. He's amazing individual, one of the best men I've been around with so far, you know, just talking with him for, you know, the times that we've spoken over the phone and via zoom, it's been phenomenal and I can't wait to get in the building with him. Charles Odom, Associated Press. I just to follow up on that and welcome to Atlanta, by the way. Thanks, Charles. Just to follow up on that. Obviously, as we've seen Arthur Smith building the staff, we, we see some commonalities of, of, of, you know, coaches that he's been with at Tennessee. And obviously, you don't have that, but I'm wondering if there was somebody that behind the lines that maybe was a common denominator in your coaching pass that maybe gave him a referral, you know, about you. Yes. You know, my first year in the league was 2016 with the San Diego Chargers at the time. And I interviewed for a special teams coordinator at the time, his name is Craig Ackerman, and he's now special teams coordinator for the Tennessee Titans. He's also to one of my mentors. He was awesome to work with because he involved me with the entire game plan and all six phases of special teams. And we spent a lot of time with each other in the room where the game plan and evaluating our opponents evaluating our team. So that's a guy that's really close to my heart. And, you know, I give a lot of credit to him in getting me into the NFL and teaching me the way of how to be a great coach on and off the field. So that was a guy that we shared, you know, a common friendship with. And, you know, so it kind of took off from there and an opportunity to sit down via Zoom to talk with Arthur and, you know, talk about his goal and what he sees and envisions for the Atlanta Falcons. I also wanted to ask you about Brendan Powell. You guys, I guess, spent some time together in 2019 there in Detroit. Oh yeah, BP, I call him. I love that dude. I love, you know, the way he plays the game. He's a fearless runner. You know, he has great short area quickness. I love his mindset and his temperament which he plays with. You know, I consider him a dog on the field. You know, and he's always been, you know, I had that history with them. So, you know, it's been fun to work with them in Detroit, you know, and, you know, you know, those personnel decisions when it gets down the road. I'll be based on Arthur and Terry and how they want to, you know, you know, put together the team. But, you know, he's a, he's a solid and really good returner in NFL. And I'm excited to see him play. Jason bought a JC. Hey coach, welcome to Atlanta. Yeah, so I wanted to ask you, you know, what, what was it about the return scheme that you had there in Detroit that led to those three return touchdowns the past two years. You know, you know, I'll say this, you know, we had playmakers on the field. The returner we had was Jamal Agnew, and he's a dynamic returner. He's a fearless runner. He could get north-south immediately. But when you ask Jamal, if you speak to him one-on-one, he'll tell you that it was the other 10 men on the field, you know, doing their job. And that's big in my eyes and our team's vision, you know, is doing our job. If guys could do their job and make plays, blocking in space, it's going to, we're going to get yards. And then after that, we'd see what he, like an apartment turn game, we're looking at, hey, if we could get 10, if we could get 10 at least, then whatever happens after that happens. But it goes back to what I was saying, Jason, great plays are made from great effort. And it's not only the returner. It's guys blocking downfield. And those are always great to watch because when we get the opportunity to pull those plays up and watch it again, we're pulling out multiple clips of guys and multiple individual matchups in that play where guys are winning great effort. You know, the last game we had a touch return for today, not from the line of scrimmage started down, and then we allowed our returner to one secure the football and then do what he's best at making people miss in space and get a vertical with the football. So those are things that we push. And obviously we got to work that at practice. You know, we got to provide the players those tools at practice working those basic fundamentals blocking in space, different blocking angles, leverage in phase out of phase. So when we get in the game, our guys are able to be confident and do that at a high level. And now you guys got to play against Atlanta this year. So is there any, is there Sterling Hoffric there was a rookie this past year? You know, what are the areas you believe you can improve that? And are you excited to get to work with them this year? You know, once you're on the field and at practice. Yeah, I'm always excited to get guys better at their, you know, their fundamentals and their techniques. There'll be some like, so some little tweaks that we'll work on. I mean, he has talent and he has a talented leg is just getting them be the more consistent with that leg, you know, with those basic fundamentals. So that's something that will dive deeper in once we get back in the building. Once we start our offseason regimen, but I'm excited to get the opportunity to see how he advances throughout this offseason. Thanks. Kelsey Conway, Atlanta Falcons.com. Hey coach, I just wondering what are some of the things that you're most looking forward to joining Arthur Smith staff for? You know, I think the overall opportunity to grow as a coach, you know, and then, you know, his vision that he asked for the team and seeing it, you know, how it's going to grow from, you know, off from the offseason to training camp to training camp to the season. And the staff that we're putting together is a great staff. And I'm excited to be in the room with all those guys and how we're going to compliment each other, you know, in all phases of the game and how we're going to compliment our team and our players and how we're going to get these guys better. It's always about growing, you know, our job, everybody's servants on this planet, you know, just so happen football is our platform to serve and help these players and without players coaches. So, you know, being at a player's league, getting on the same page with all of our coaches, everybody off the field, our support staff, everybody that's in the building and our personal staff as well and being able to put our best team out there and then seeing that team grow throughout the season. That's the part I'm most excited for.