Falcons targeting Ole Miss football co-DC Patrick Toney for assistant role

The Atlanta Falcons have set their sights on one of the members of Ole Miss football’s staff. The Atlanta Falcons are targeting Ole Miss co-defensive coordinator Patrick Toney as their new defensive pass game coordinator. The news comes after it was expected that Pete Golding would call plays once again, as he did when he was the former defensive coordinator before Lane Kiffin left for LSU.

According to On3’s Pete Nakos, Ole Miss co-defensive coordinator Patrick Toney is being eyed by the Atlanta Falcons for its new defensive pass game coordinator position. Toney did not call plays with the Rebels, and that might be a big reason why he is deciding to head to Atlanta.

Toney is entering his first season as Ole Miss’s defensive coordinator after being hired in early January, following three seasons as the Arizona Cardinals’ defensive backs coach from 2023 to 2025.

Before that, Toney spent the 2022 season as the co-DC and safeties coach at Florida under then-Gators head coach Billy Napier, after following him from Louisiana, where he served four years on the Ragin’ Cajuns’ defensive staff, the last two as coordinator. He also spent time at Southeastern Louisiana, Sam Houston State, and UTSA, where he worked directly under Golding.

If Toney decides to leave Ole Miss, the Rebels still have co-defensive coordinator and Ole Miss alum Bryan Brown, whose official title is head coach of the defense, leading the unit, so it will be interesting if they decide to hire another defensive coordinator or keep the defense all to Brown.

Brown held a similar role for the past two seasons under Golding, after previously serving as the associate head coach/defensive coordinator at Cincinnati in 2023 and at Louisville from 2019 to 2022.

The Atlanta Falcons are in the midst of a complete overhaul of their staff after deciding to make a coaching change and hire former Browns coach Kevin Stefanski. One part of the shakeup was surprising, with the dismissal of new defensive lines coach LaTroy Lewis two weeks after his hiring. Lewis was fired after learning he had been accused of rape during his time as a member of Michigan‘s football staff.

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