Cleveland Browns assistant coach Ephraim Banda, the team’s safeties coach, has been selected to coach in this year’s Reese’s Senior Bowl.
The Reese’s Senior Bowl has announced the coaches for their respective teams this year. One of them is Cleveland Browns safeties coach Ephraim Banda, who will be the defensive coordinator for the American Team.
This is part of a recent change to the Senior Bowl coaching format. Starting last year, the Senior Bowl has become a forum for assistant coaches to take on new roles from the ones they have with their teams. Coaches were nominated by head coaches and general managers to participate in the event. Banda was selected from the Browns.
That will provide additional insight for Banda and the Browns on players who will be participating in this year’s event. Every team interviews gets the opportunity to meet with every player, but Banda will get to coach and interact with players on the field, seeing how they take and apply coaching as well as interact with their teammates. Banda just completed his first year with the Browns, his first in the NFL. Previously, he had worked exclusively at the collegiate level including universities like Incarnate Word, Texas, Mississippi State, Miami(FL) and concluding with Utah State as the team’s defensive coordinator in 2021 and 2022.
2023 was a productive year for the Browns safety position. Grant Delpit was named as an alternate to the Pro Bowl and when the team was down their top three safeties, rookie Ronnie Hickman, D’Anthony Bell and late add to the roster Duron Harmon were able to pick up the slack and help the Browns continue to win. Hickman participated in the Senior Bowl this past season as did his Ohio State teammate Dawand Jones. The Browns selected the hulking tackle in the fourth round of this past year’s draft, signing Hickman to a deal after the draft. Both players were named to the PFWA All-Rookie team.
Before the Senior Bowl changed their coaching format, they simply defaulted to the two teams with the worst record who did not make a head coaching change. Notably, former Browns head coach Hue Jackson was the head coach of a team one year. Curiously, he passed on the event the next year when the Browns once again qualified to coach the game, almost as if the Senior Bowl asked him to pass because they didn’t want him there.
The Senior Bowl is set to take place at the University of Southern Alabama in Mobile with practice starting on Tuesday. January 30th and running through Thursday, February 1st. The game is slated to be carried on NFL Network Saturday at 12pm EST on February 3rd
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