Report: Atlanta Falcons request to interview LSU’s Cortez Hankton for OC opening

The Atlanta Falcons have requested to interview LSU’s Cortez Hankton for their offensive coordinator position, NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport reported. Atlanta hired Raheem Morris as head coach earlier this week, and he appears to be moving quickly to fill out his staff.

Hankton spent the last two seasons as LSU’s passing game coordinator and wide receivers coach, meaning he worked closely with Malik Nabers has he became a Biletnikoff Award finalists this past year. He’s currently gearing up to move up to co-offensive coordinator alongside Joe Sloan after Mike Denbrock chose to return to Notre Dame to become the offensive coordinator under Marcus Freeman.

Cortez Hankton played in the NFL from 2003-08 before wrapping up his playing career in the UFL. He then got into coaching in 2012 as a wide receivers coach at Dartmouth, and also has experience in the role at Vanderbilt from 2015-17 and at Georgia from 2018-21.

Nabers — a projected top-10 pick in this year’s NFL Draft — put together a massive year in 2023 as a top target for Heisman Trophy winner Jayden Daniels. He finished second in the nation with 1,569 receiving yards and had 14 touchdowns as part of his second consecutive 1,000-yard campaign. He formed quite the 1-2 punch with Brian Thomas, who led the FBS with 17 touchdowns while totaling 1,177 receiving yards.

ESPN’s Mel Kiper Jr. projected Nabers to go to the New York Giants with the No. 6 overall pick in his Mock Draft 1.0 earlier this week. This year’s draft is filled with wide receiver talent, with three wideouts — Marvin Harrison Jr., Nabers and Rome Odunze — coming in as top-10 picks in Kiper’s first mock of the year.

Raheem Morris is preparing to take over for Arthur Smith in Atlanta

The Falcons hired Morris on Thursday after he spent three years as the Los Angeles Rams’ defensive coordinator. He previously worked in Atlanta in that same role in 2020 before taking over as the interim head coach that year when the Falcons fired Dan Quinn. During his 11 games in the interim role, Morris amassed a 4-7 record following an 0-5 start under Quinn.

Morris also has head coaching experience with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers from 2009-11. He had a 17-31 record during that time before heading back to the assistant coaching ranks with Washington from 2012-14. Atlanta then hired him as an assistant head coach and passing game coordinator in 2015, and he worked his way up to wide receivers coach and defensive coordinator.