Atlanta Falcons Hire Tosh Lupoi as a Defensive Line Coach, Run Game Coordinator

The Atlanta Falcons have announced the second hiring of a Cleveland Browns assistant from the 2019 coaching staff. They are hiring Tosh Lupoi to be a defensive line coach and run game coordinator.

The Atlanta Falcons have announced the hiring of Tosh Lupoi as a defensive line coach and run game coordinator. Lupoi was part of the Cleveland Browns staff in 2019 as their defensive line coach under head coach Freddie Kitchens. Lupoi is the second Browns coach from the 2019 staff that has been hired by the Falcons as they also hired Joe Whitt, who worked with the Browns secondary this past season.

Lupoi was tasked with coaching a Browns defensive line that included Myles Garrett, Olivier Vernon, Sheldon Richardson and Larry Ogunjobi. Before he was suspended for the remainder of the season, Garrett was enjoying a career year, on pace to easily surpass the team record for sacks and put up an argument for Defensive Player of the Year. Vernon's stats didn't reflect it, but in terms of his play, he was excellent before the knee injury. Richardson was marginal the first six games of the season, but really took off after the bye week. Ogunjobi had some stats, but overall wasn't as good as he could have been.

Once injuries and suspensions took hold of the group and general manager John Dorsey had already traded their depth, Lupoi went from a group of stars to coaching street free agents, including Bryan Cox Jr. and Porter Gustin. Cox was able to make his share of plays in his opportunities.

Lupoi did a nice job of rotating the Browns defensive line and keeping them fresh, enabling them to play at a high level. Before joining the Browns, Lupoi was the defensive coordinator of Alabama and a big part of their recruiting.