Georgia Tech’s defensive coordinator has turned his impressive and successful one season with the Yellow Jackets into his first NFL opportunity.
Tyler Santucci has accepted a position with the Baltimore Ravens, a person familiar with the situation confirmed to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Saturday. Santucci is expected to be Baltimore’s linebackers coach for the 2025 season.
Santucci came to Atlanta a little more than a year ago after one season as defensive coordinator at Duke and three seasons at Texas A&M, first as linebackers coach and then as co-defensive coordinator. Tech’s defense under Santucci made significant strides, going from 131st nationally in rush defense in 2023 to 30th in 2024, from 123rd in total defense to 42nd and 108th on third-down defense to 22nd.
Santucci’s defense also allowed four fewer points per game than the 2023 defense.
“That’s why I got hired,” Santucci said in July, his one and only media appearance with the Jackets, about turning around Tech’s defense. “That’s not pressure, that’s my job. That’s just what you sign up for. There’s an expectation that you do a good job. That’s the world we live in. It’s stop people, create takeaways and get the ball back to the offense and don’t let them score touchdowns. That’s not pressure, that’s just our job.”
The Jackets also only allowed 30 points in a game five times during the regular season. Georgia was the only opponent to score more than 40 points on the Tech defense, and 17 of the 44 points the Bulldogs scored came in overtime.
A former Stony Brook linebacker, Santucci signed a two-year contract with Tech on Jan. 17. That contract was automatically extended Jan. 1 to Jan. 31, 2027. Santucci made an annual salary of $600,000 for his first year with Tech and was in line to make $850,000 for his second year. He received a bonus of one month’s salary for the Jackets’ participation in the Birmingham Bowl.
Santucci, 36, has also held coaching positions at his alma mater, Wake Forest, Texas State and Notre Dame.
Tech and coach Brent Key will now be in search of the program’s fourth defensive coordinator in three seasons. Key retained Andrew Thacker in the position when Key took over as the program’s full-time coach ahead of the 2023 season, then Kevin Sherrer took over the role in October of 2023 before Santucci was hired in 2024.
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