{"id":102100,"date":"2026-02-01T06:37:19","date_gmt":"2026-02-01T06:37:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/102100\/"},"modified":"2026-02-01T06:37:19","modified_gmt":"2026-02-01T06:37:19","slug":"falcons-hire-pittsburgh-native-former-mike-mccarthy-assistant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/102100\/","title":{"rendered":"Falcons Hire Pittsburgh Native, former Mike McCarthy Assistant"},"content":{"rendered":"

Steelers News<\/a><\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"SteelersCleveland Browns offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt before an NFL football game against the Cincinnati Bengals, Sunday, Jan. 7, 2024, in Cincinnati. (AP Photo\/Sue Ogrocki)\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

The Atlanta Falcons are hiring Alex Van Pelt<\/a> as their quarterbacks coach, according to a report by Tom Pelissero of NFL Network<\/a>, taking one former Mike McCarthy<\/a> assistant and Pittsburgh native off the board for the Pittsburgh Steelers as McCarthy assembles his first coaching staff with the team.<\/p>\n

Van Pelt played collegiately at Pitt<\/a> and was drafted by the Steelers in the eighth round in 1993, but never played for the team, spending most of his pro career with the Buffalo Bills.<\/p>\n

He joined McCarthy\u2019s coaching staff in 2012 as running backs coach, and was promoted to quarterbacks coach in 2014. He left in 2018, taking the same job with the Cincinnati Bengals<\/a> before earning a promotion to offensive coordinator with the Cleveland Browns<\/a> in 2020.<\/p>\n

In his three seasons as Browns offensive coordinator from 2020-23, Van Pelt had just one season of settled play at the quarterback position. In 2020, Baker Mayfield had one of the best seasons of his career, maintaining the best season of his career in terms of QBR (65.5) and second-best in terms of passer rating (95.9) and adjusted net yards per attempt (6.96), as the Browns upset the Steelers in the Wild Card round for Cleveland\u2019s first playoff win since 1994.<\/p>\n

Then came the 2021 season, when Mayfield played through injury, and the acquisition of Deshaun Watson, who was suspended for the first 11 games of the 2022 season. In 2023, with Watson injured, Van Pelt led the Browns back to the playoffs with 38-year-old Joe Flacco winning NFL Comeback Player of the Year, but was fired at the end of the season.<\/p>\n

He was also hired as the offensive coordinator for the New England Patriots in 2024, but was not retained when the team fired Jerod Mayo after one season. In 2025, Van Pelt spent the year as the senior offensive assistant for Sean McVay and the Los Angeles Rams.<\/p>\n

With the Falcons, he\u2019ll reunite with Kevin Stefanski, who was his head coach with the Browns.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMentioned In This Article: Alex van pelt<\/a> Atlanta Falcons<\/a> Mike McCarthy<\/a> Pittsburgh Steelers<\/a> Steelers<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Steelers News Cleveland Browns offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt before an NFL football game against the Cincinnati Bengals,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":102101,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[49602,11861,8203,73,75,74,1833,1829],"class_list":["post-102100","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh","tag-alex-van-pelt","tag-atlanta-falcons","tag-mike-mccarthy","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-headlines","tag-pittsburgh-news","tag-pittsburgh-steelers","tag-steelers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102100","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=102100"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102100\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/102101"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=102100"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=102100"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=102100"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}