LAS VEGAS — The Atlanta Falcons on Friday hired Ryan Nielsen as their defensive coordinator, replacing their biggest rival after he served as the New Orleans Saints’ co-defensive coordinator last season.
Nielsen, 43, has spent the last six seasons with the Saints, where he was defensive line coach all six years while adding the title of assistant head coach in 2021 and the title of co-defensive coordinator last season.
Since 2017, the Saints have recorded 281 sacks — the second-highest in the NFL for that span — and have finished in the top four in run defense in four of the last five seasons.
The Falcons also fired three defensive coaches Friday — line coach Gary Emanuel, outside linebackers coach Ted Monachino and secondary coach Jon Hoke.
Nielsen is not currently in Las Vegas with the Falcons staff as Atlanta trains at the East-West Shrine Bowl. Linebackers coach Frank Bush is the defensive coordinator for Atlanta in the East-West game.
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The Falcons needed a new defensive coordinator after Dean Pees, who at 73 became the NFL’s oldest coordinator last season, decided for the third time of his career to retire in part to spend more time with his family.
Pees laid a foundation for the Atlanta defense, both in terms of the style they wanted to lead and the culture they needed to permeate the entire roster.
“It was a different system than what they had,” Pees said. “So you had to get them to buy in.”
The Falcons also had a young defense and were converting except for two starters from the 2020 team – defensive tackle Grady Jarrett and cornerback AJ Terrell – through the middle of last season. While Atlanta finished 23rd in points allowed and 27th in yards allowed in 2022, there was progress towards the end of the year.
The Falcons once conceded more than 19 points in their last six games and 350+ yards in a game in the second half of the season (351 vs. Pittsburgh) after conceding 350+ yards in six of Atlanta’s first eight games.
Post-season, Falcons head coach Arthur Smith said the franchise wanted to talk to a variety of potential candidates before making a decision, but also wanted to focus on flexibility in who he brought on board.
“If you’re building this hybrid model, you’re not looking for an overhaul,” Smith said. “We’ve built something here.”
He didn’t narrow his search, interviewing candidates with prior defensive coordinator experience, prior head coaching experience, and those who were not full-time solo defensive coordinators.
When Smith hired Pees, he wanted an experienced playcaller who could also act as a mentor for a first-time head coach to lean on. In Pees, Smith had that.
Where they are now, Smith said, is different than two seasons ago. By the end of 2022, the Falcons had only five defensive players from the previous regime on the roster — Jarrett, Terrell, linebacker Mykal Walker, cornerback Isaiah Oliver, and safety Jaylinn Hawkins. Oliver is a free agent this offseason and both Walker and Hawkins are in the final years of their contracts.
Smith compared what he was hoping for from Atlanta to the Baltimore Ravens, who have had multiple defensive coordinators and made changes to their schema over the years, but not to the kind of players they were looking for or the vision that they had repelled for the overarching plan.
“The way we built it,” Smith said. “That won’t change.”
Raised in Southern California, Nielsen went to college at USC as a defensive tackle and then became a volunteer assistant coach.
He spent the first 15 years of his coaching career in college, working with the defensive line at every stop, and was a defensive coordinator at Central Connecticut State in 2008 and 2009 and a co-defensive coordinator at Northern Illinois in 2012.