Defensive line coach: Dan Quinn, Falcons
Quinn is one of the league’s most creative thinkers when it comes to the defensive line. He really got to stretch into that as Pete Carroll’s defensive line coach in Seattle in 2010, and as his defensive coordinator in 2013 and ‘14 after a two-year break coaching Florida’s defense. It was his idea to take defensive tackle Brandon Mebane and align him in the old “Stunt 4–3” position made famous by Pittsburgh’s Joe Greene in the 1970s. It was his idea to take tackle Red Bryant, who weighed anywhere from 330 to 360 pounds depending on who you believed, and make him the biggest 4–3 run-stopping end anyone’s ever seen. And it was Quinn who maximized the multi-gap talents of end/tackle Michael Bennett, who came to Seattle in 2013. His football smarts and dynamic personality got him the Falcons’ head coach position, but Quinn is our choice for D-line coach because he’s always going to maximize the talents of his personnel.
