Dean Pees as the Falcons first DC is a peculiar choice

Atlanta Falcons have announced Dean Pees as the new defensive coordinator.

Atlanta Falcons’ new head coach Arthur Smith has made his most important hire as he named Dean Pees as his first defensive coordinator.

Pees has not coached football in a year as he retired in January of 2020 for the second time. He has won two Super Bowls – one as an assistant with the Patriots and the other as the defensive coordinator in 2012 for the Ravens.

Pees has had a lot of success as a defensive coordinator in the NFL with all three teams he was tasked with leading. In 12 seasons as a defensive coordinator, his defenses ranked in the Top 10 of scoring defenses eight different times – 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2014, 2016, 2017, and 2018. Only his 2015 Ravens defense ranked outside the Top 20 in scoring defense.

He comes to Atlanta with a lot of success, though that doesn’t mean that it has been all roses for him as a defensive coordinator.

Why this choice for the Atlanta Falcons is sketchy.

Over the last five seasons, the Atlanta Falcons have given up a lot of leads late in games and those games are a big reason why the Falcons are picking fourth in this year’s NFL draft.

Dean Pees’ defenses late in his career have been known to give up leads late in games. He is one of those coaches that like to abandon the success his defenses have had early in games and go into garbage prevent and that has been costly.

If he is going to have success in Atlanta, he will have to trust Grady Jarrett, Deion Jones, AJ Terrell and whomever else is on the field to make plays but more importantly, he is going to have to put them in a position to make plays.

The other reason this is a sketchy choice is he has already retired twice in the last three seasons.

Pees originally retired in early January of 2018 and less than 30 days later he was back with a new franchise. As we mentioned early, he retired a second time last January and is now back in the NFL. The Atlanta Falcons need stability and growth and a coach who will be 72 when the season kicks-off in 2021 is anything but stable.

While there is plenty of upside to this hire, Dean Pees is not a sure thing and there is plenty of reason to be skeptical. Fans don’t have any reason to doubt Arthur Smith but this first hire could be reminiscent of the tomfoolery we experienced under Dan Quinn.

Hopefully, this works for the sake of Jarrett, Jones, and the young but talented Falcons defense.