Son of Falcons Legend Included In Coaching Fellowship Hires

FLOWERY BRANCH – The Atlanta Falcons have announced their 2026 Bill Walsh Diversity Coaching Fellows and Ollie Wilson Coaching Fellow on Tuesday. The group of five participants includes the son of a franchise legend and one of head coach Kevin Stefanski’s former players. These roles are intended to provide minority coaches with hands-on NFL experience while exposing them to the methods and philosophies of an NFL coaching staff.

According to a release from the Falcons, Khalid Blount, Clint Sintim, Justin Tuggle, and Anthony Walker Jr. will join the team for the offseason position.

Tuggle, a former linebacker and the son of Falcons legend Jesse Tuggle, played several seasons in the NFL. He originally signed with the Texans in 2013 and spent three seasons with the franchise. Tuggle played in 42 games, where he recorded 52 tackles, two passes defensed, two tackles for loss, two fumble recoveries, one forced fumble, one quarterback hit, and one interception.

Walker, who is also a former player, appeared in 101 career games (83 starts) over nine seasons. The defender made stops with the Indianapolis Colts (2017-20), Cleveland Browns (2021-23), Miami Dolphins (2024), and Tampa Bay Buccaneers (2025).

In that span, the former fifth-round pick recorded 571 tackles, 26 tackles for loss, 21 passes defensed, nine quarterback hits, 5.5 sacks, four interceptions, four fumble recoveries, and two forced fumbles. He also spent three seasons with Stefanski in Cleveland.

Blount joins the Falcons for the summer from the University of Pittsburgh. In his current role, he serves as the assistant strength and conditioning coach for the Panthers. Before his time in Pittsburgh, Blount spent two seasons as an assistant football strength and conditioning coach at Texas Tech (2023-25), as a strength and conditioning intern for Pitt in 2022, and at North Carolina Central, his alma mater, as a strength and conditioning coach (2021-22) and strength and conditioning intern (2021).

Sintim, who currently serves as the linebackers coach at Colorado State, has spent several years as a defensive position coach at the collegiate level. He has stops as an outside linebackers/special teams coach for West Alabama (2013), defensive graduate assistant for Virginia (2014), outside linebackers coach at Richmond (2015-16), co-special teams coordinator/outside linebackers coach at Delaware (2017-19), defensive line coach and linebackers coach at Virginia (2020-23). He is currently a linebackers coach for Illinois (2024).

He is a former second-round pick of the New York Giants in 2009, out of Virginia. He played in 24 games through two NFL seasons, making one start.

In an additional announcement, offensive assistant Michael Bearden will serve as the inaugural Ollie Wilson Coaching Fellow for the year.

Bearden spent the 2025 season with the Cleveland Browns under Stefanski as part of Cleveland’s Bill Willis Coaching Fellowship.

Before Cleveland, Bearden spent time in the college ranks, coaching Notre Dame as an assistant wide receivers coach (2024-25) and UCLA as an analyst (2022), and was later promoted to assistant special teams coordinator and specialist coach (2023).

As an undergrad at Northwestern, Bearden worked with the team’s defensive backs (2020) and quarterbacks/wide receivers (2021-22) as a student assistant.

The Falcons’ organized team activities are set to continue next week, with mandatory minicamp kicking off on June 16.

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