Seattle Sea Dragons head coach Jim Halsett is reportedly on the short list of candidates to be Atlanta’s new defensive coordinator according to Cam Marino of stackingtheboard.com.
Haslett has close ties with Atlanta’s current VP of Player Personnel, Kyle Smith, from Haslett’s time as a DC in Washington from 2011-2014, while Smith worked in various FO roles there. His ties to the Falcons do not end there though. In 2020, Haslett was the Tennessee Titans Inside linebackers coach, coaching on the opposite side of the ball as former Titans OC/current Falcons HC Arthur Smith. Haslett also has experience working with Falcons GM Terry Fontenot from 2003-2005 in New Orleans when Jim Haslett was the head coach of the Saints, and Fontenot worked as a scout.
If Haslett does make the move from XFL to NFL, this would leave Seattle with no head coach with just over a month until the league kicks off. A nightmare for a team that is meeting just a month and a half before the season begins. If this move happens, expectations around the league are that Seattle OC June Jones would take over as head coach. Jones was the head coach of the Houston Roughnecks in XFL 2020, where the Roughnecks had a perfect record of 5-0 before the league was shut down due to COVID. Many thought Jones was in line for another head coaching job because of his performance in 2020, but those rumors were quickly shut down when he signed on as the Seattle OC in April 2022.
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