Report: Falcons To Bring Back Teryl Austin For Second Interview
By Ashley Dunkak
@AshleyDunkak
CBS DETROIT - By the end of the week, Detroit Lions defensive coordinator Teryl Austin will have interviewed as a candidate for the head coaching vacancies of the San Francisco 49ers, Buffalo Bills, Atlanta Falcons (twice) and Chicago Bears.
Austin met with the 49ers, the Bills - who have since hired Rex Ryan - and the Falcons last week, and according to ESPN, Atlanta will bring Austin back for a second interview Thursday. He interviews Tuesday with the Bears.
Per ESPN, the Falcons will also conduct a second interview with Arizona Cardinals defensive coordinator Todd Bowles and would also like to bring back Seattle Seahawks defensive coordinator Dan Quinn, who cannot interview again until after Seattle is eliminated from the playoffs.
In Austin's first year at the helm of the Detroit defense - his first year as an NFL coordinator - the Lions ranked as one of the best in the league all season. Players praised Austin for understanding the strengths of individuals and utilizing those strengths to the fullest. They also spoke highly of his willingness to take player feedback about the game plan, saying Austin and other other coaches would listen to ideas from players, discuss them and sometimes implement them.
Detroit head coach Jim Caldwell said Austin absolutely has what any team needs in its leader.
"He has all of the qualities that you're looking for," Caldwell said. "Two of the things I think for dynamic leadership that you're looking at are precepts and percepts. One, the precepts, being the technical knowledge and being able to understand exactly what you're doing in your chosen profession. He's excellent at that. The percepts are, does he have the emotional sort of connection with his players to sort of get them to do what he wants to? Does he have it when he needs it? He has that. I think, not only that, he does a great job in terms of handling the media, which is very important in this particular job. I fail at that quite often; he excels at it."
Lions general manager Martin Mayhew also offered his endorsement.
"For us to be number one in rushing defense and I think we're number three in scoring defense this year, he did a phenomenal job with the group, and I think he has a lot of ability," Mayhew said. "I think he's certainly capable of being a head coach in the NFL. I think I said that when he got here, that at some point he'd have an opportunity to do that. He's certainly worthy of the opportunity."
