The Falcons announced their newest crop of Bill Walsh Diversity Coaching Fellows on Tuesday, and they include a son of franchise legend and one of coach Kevin Stefanski’s former players.
Khalid Blount, Clint Sintim, Justin Tuggle and Anthony Walker Jr. are the Falcons’ coaching fellows and will be with the team for the remainder of the offseason program.
The Falcons also created the Ollie Wilson Coaching Fellowship, which honors former Falcons and Chargers running backs coach Ollie Wilson and was awarded to Michael Bearden. It’s a yearlong fellowship designed to give “hands-on NFL experience for minority coaches while exposing them to the methods and philosophies of an NFL coaching staff,” according to the team’s press release.
Meet the recipients
— Tuggle is the son of Falcons legend Jessie Tuggle, the organization’s all-time leading tackler with 1,805 stops. The elder Tuggle started 189 of his 209 appearances across 14 seasons with the Falcons, spanning 1987-2000. He earned five Pro Bowl nods and received second-team All-Pro honors in 1998.
Justin Tuggle played three seasons with the Houston Texans from 2013-15. He started 11 games and played in 42 altogether. He finished his playing career in 2021 with the Canadian Football League’s Toronto Argonauts.
— Walker played under Falcons coach Kevin Stefanski from 2021-23 with the Cleveland Browns. A former Northwestern standout, Walker was the Browns’ Walter Payton Man of the Year nominee in 2023.
The 30-year-old Walker appeared in 101 games, starting 83, and collected 581 tackles and 26 tackles for loss. He played in two games with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers last season and announced his retirement in April.
— Blount has a weight room background. He’s the assistant strength and conditioning coach at the University of Pittsburgh, which follows a two-year run in the same role at Texas Tech.
— Sintim, likewise, is an active college coach. He’s the linebackers coach at Colorado State, his latest stop after holding similar job titles at Illinois, Virginia, Delaware and Richmond. He also has experience working with defensive linemen and as a co-special teams coordinator.
A second-round draft pick by the New York Giants in 2009, Sintim played in 24 games and made one start.
— Bearden spent last season working under Stefanski as part of the Browns’ Bill Willis Coaching Fellowship. He was one of the Chicago Bears’ Bill Walsh coaching fellows in 2024 and made stops as an assistant coach at Notre Dame and UCLA.
The Falcons are in the midst of organized team activities and will conclude this phase of the offseason program with mandatory minicamp June 16-18.
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