There is no coach in the NFL who rides for his guys the way Kevin Stefanski does. His loyalty to his players helped define his six-season stint coaching the Cleveland Browns, and his short time as the head coach of the Atlanta Falcons has all but confirmed that you can't teach an old dog new tricks.
Stefanski has brought over a few of his old players this offseason, but he's unlocked a new type of loyalty. And it isn't a personnel decision--it's a coaching decision. The Falcons brought in four coaches through the Bill Walsh Diversity Coaching Fellowship, including one of his old players.
Earlier this week, Atlanta announced four Bill Walsh Diversity Coaching Fellows: Khalid Blount, Clint Sintim, Justin Tuggle (the son of Falcons all-time leading tackler Jessie Tuggle), and former Browns' linebacker Anthony Walker Jr., who spent three seasons playing for the two-time Coach of the Year.
The Falcons added Anthony Walker Jr. through the Bill Walsh Diversity Coaching Fellowship
Given Walker Jr, was the green dot for of some of Stefanski's defenses in Cleveland, it's hard to be particularly surprised at this. The 30-year-old played for Stefanski in Cleveland from 2021 until 2023, where he made 24 starts over three seasons as he struggled to stay consistently healthy over time.
Half of those starts came in 2023, but his best year came in 2021 despite only starting nine games due to injury. But he clearly made enough of an impression on Stefanski as a leader to give him a chance to go into coaching, which is something he's apparently said he wanted to do after playing.
The 2017 fifth-round pick of the Indianapolis Colts played nine NFL seasons and retired this spring after spending 2025 in Tampa Bay. The Northwestern product was never elite, but in his best years, he was a more than serviceable LB, logging back-to-back 100-tackle seasons in Indianapolis.
The Bill Walsh Diversity Coaching Fellowship is meant to add more diversity to coaching circles and help diversity candidates observe, gain experience, and ultimately land a full-time coaching position. And this is meant to help candidates who are either former players or less experienced coaches.
Typically, coaching fellows are hired for the duration of training camp, including the pre-season, so Walker will get good experience learning from Stefanski in Atlanta. The opportunity usually lasts between a few days and a few weeks, but some participants are kept around longer than others.
There is also a mentorship aspect of this, so Walker, Blount, Sintim, and Tuggle will have plenty of chances to learn from Stefanski and this coaching staff and prove themselves as deserving of further coaching opportunities.
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