ELF: Barcelona Dragons sign former NFL assistant Andrew Weidinger as HC

The Barcelona Dragons have announced the signing of former Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Atlanta Falcons assistant Andrew Weidinger as their new head coach and offensive coordinator.

The 39-year-old native of Phoenix, Arizona spent the 2021 season as offensive coordinator for the Potsdam Royals in the German Football League. Under Weidinger, the Royals finished with the fourth highest scoring offense in the GFL and the top rushing offense and reached the GFL semifinals for the first time in their history.

In 2019, with Weidinger as the running backs coach, the Arizona Hotshots of the Alliance of American Football, led the league in rushing before the season ended prematurely.

Prior to that, Weidinger spent 11 years coaching in the NFL starting with the Atlanta Falcons as a player personnel scout in 2007 moving up to assistant to the head coach from 2008 to 2012. From 2012 to 2014, Weidinger served as offensive assistant coach for the Falcons.

From 2015 to 2018, he worked for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers as the offensive quality control coach and assistant wide receiver coach. During his years with the Buccaneers, Weidinger was also responsible for game management.

Weidinger is looking forward to the challenge:

“I am tremendously proud that this opportunity has come to me. This is a ‘top’ organization from top to bottom and I can’t wait to start. We are going to be a mentally and physically strong team and we will go out and compete. We will give our fans a team to be proud of”.

Dragons General Manager, Bart Iaccarino:

“We look forward to strong leadership and laying the foundations for a competitive and professional team. He is a person who has both the vision of the European and American level. He is young and has a long experience in the NFL. We hope that now he can give the best of himself, that he can help local coaches grow and that this can become a long-term relationship, since we are open to having the same coach for several years”.