Couple of quotes from 2021 Athletic article - Looking for the Saints’ next rising coaching star? Meet Ryan Nielsen

[tcmafreak]

I am trying to convince myself I am okay with this hire, because how I feel changes nothing as far as the team is concerned. Regardless, I found a pretty interesting article in the Athletic from August of 2021:

Looking for the Saints’ next rising coaching star? Meet Ryan Nielsen

From Carl Granderson DE of the Saints

Quote

“His coaching style is pretty much hardcore,” Granderson said. “He focuses and is big on technique and effort. He coaches pretty hard. He wants us to be big, nasty D linemen so we can play out there and destroy people. His coaching style has come a long way. It’s hardcore. In college at Wyoming, I had another coach that was just similar to it. So I’m used to it. You have to have tough skin in order to play D line for the New Orleans Saints.”

 

From Michael Hodges LB Coach for the Saints

Quote

...But Ryan, he’s one of the best teachers that I’ve ever been around. I don’t say that very often.

“I sort of joke about this, but if I don’t learn something new from Ryan every day, I’m doing myself a disservice. In special-teams drills, I’m just sitting back trying to get out the way, but I want to be close enough to him to hear him talk. He’s a special coach. He falls right in with everything that we’re doing. And what he’s done with that D line has just been unbelievable.”

 

[tbhawksfan]

The next time that a co coach speaks bad of a co coach will be the first.

Heck, even rival coaches speak highly of eachother

[PokerSteve]

Everything I'm seeing and hearing about Ryan Nielsen is he's an extraordinary coach. He quickly gained a reputation for the dramatic improvement in the Saints DL, which went from pitiful to powerful once he took the reigns. I'm excited to see what Nielsen can do with our players. I don't see any way but up from where we're at right now.

[falconsd56]

That hard coaching style works great...until it doesn't.

We have seen that here in Atlanta with Bill Kollar.

He was that same type of coach and had great success here with the "Bomb squad" and some other good units but it eventually wore thin and guys didn't take to it well.

As with pretty much everything, it boils down to 1 thing.....are you winning with that approach?

If that is a yes then people respond to it.....if it is no then you just come off as an *******.

And as we all know......you have to be good enough to be an *******.

[deester11]

I posted these quotes in the hire thread.  While I'm a wait and see kinda guy, I'm good with this hire.

[gazoo]

53 minutes ago, PokerSteve said:

He quickly gained a reputation for the dramatic improvement in the Saints DL, which went from pitiful to powerful once he took the reins.

And what no one understands, is Nielson did this with a huge host of defensive lineman. He had them playing well together the entire time no matter who was in the lineup.  He seems capable of getting the very best out of each of his DL.

We are about to have a physical defensive line that eats offenses. No more getting pushed around when it matters the most, we will be doing to bullying.

[marvinthemartian]

It will be nice to be the bully for a change. 

[falconzfan4ever]

4 minutes ago, gazoo said:

And what no one understands, is Nielson did this with a huge host of defensive lineman. He had them playing well together the entire time no matter who was in the lineup.  He seems capable of getting the very best out of each of his DL.

We are about to have a physical defensive line that eats offenses. No more getting pushed around when it matters the most, we will be doing to bullying.

I know you've been on the TaQuon Graham fan bus for a while now. I'm excited to see his development with Nielsen if the accounts of him being a DL guru are true. 

[gazoo]

6 minutes ago, falconzfan4ever said:

I know you've been on the TaQuon Graham fan bus for a while now. I'm excited to see his development with Nielsen if the accounts of him being a DL guru are true. 

Indeed, just what I was thinking yesterday, how well Nielson can do with Grady, TQ, Timmy Horne, and some free agent DL, and draft pick DL. Grady, TQ and even Horne played well next to each other. We absolutely will be adding to this mix for a corral of DL to rotate.

[falconzfan4ever]

13 minutes ago, gazoo said:

Indeed, just what I was thinking yesterday, how well Nielson can do with Grady, TQ, Timmy Horne, and some free agent DL, and draft pick DL. Grady, TQ and even Horne played well next to each other. We absolutely will be adding to this mix for a corral of DL to rotate.

Based on the size of DE the Saints typically go after, I feel like Tuli in round 2 would be a great fit. Ability to play base DE and kick inside if needed.

[TheRisen999]

1 hour ago, PokerSteve said:

Everything I'm seeing and hearing about Ryan Nielsen is he's an extraordinary coach. He quickly gained a reputation for the dramatic improvement in the Saints DL, which went from pitiful to powerful once he took the reigns. I'm excited to see what Nielsen can do with our players. I don't see any way but up from where we're at right now.

Exactly how I’m thinking AND taking him away from the Aints is a brilliant move by Fontenot. I’m sure the team wanted him because he’s good at his job but weakening the New Orleans staff as well in one fell swoop is absolutely awesome! 😂

[TheRisen999]

1 hour ago, falconsd56 said:

That hard coaching style works great...until it doesn't.

We have seen that here in Atlanta with Bill Kollar.

He was that same type of coach and had great success here with the "Bomb squad" and some other good units but it eventually wore thin and guys didn't take to it well.

As with pretty much everything, it boils down to 1 thing.....are you winning with that approach?

If that is a yes then people respond to it.....if it is no then you just come off as an *******.

And as we all know......you have to be good enough to be an *******.

Hard coaching could also mean intense and about his business. I don’t think there are many coaches screaming in guys faces and being belligerent in today’s NFL anymore. 

Edited January 28 by TheRisen999

[PokerSteve]

39 minutes ago, TheRisen999 said:

Hard coaching could also mean intense and about his business. I don’t think there are many coaches screaming in guys faces and being belligerent in today’s NFL anymore. 

I think he's a hard taskmaster, not a shouter. He wants to toughen his guys up physically, challenge them mentally and get them believing they can walk through walls. 

[gazoo]

1 hour ago, falconzfan4ever said:

Based on the size of DE the Saints typically go after, I feel like Tuli in round 2 would be a great fit. Ability to play base DE and kick inside if needed.

If he’s there in the 2nd when we are up we’d have to get him. The dude is phenomenal and can play anywhere along the line. Quick twitch fire breather would be welcome to join our stable of DL. 

[OrthoPTSD]

2 hours ago, gazoo said:

We are about to have a physical defensive line that eats offenses.

So a new defensive line?😋

[gazoo]

16 minutes ago, OrthoPTSD said:

So a new defensive line?😋

I think Grady and TQ are top shelf. Grady was thriving with TQ playing next to him, and TQ as also killing it in there. I recall Brian Baldinger put a tape together of several plays of TQs showing how amazingly sting he was for his size, just destroying OL.

 But you need more than two dogs on the DL for them all to flourish. We get one more dog on that line and all 3 start to flourish. You can’t stop’em all.

[insight]

Coaching a defensive unit and being the defensive coordinator are two diferent things. I guess we will have to wait and see if he is able to make the transition. 

[gazoo]

1 hour ago, PokerSteve said:

I think he's a hard taskmaster, not a shouter. He wants to toughen his guys up physically, challenge them mentally and get them believing they can walk through walls. 

There they go again with the negative narrative generation, they hear something and twist it into doom and gloom narrative “BILL KOLLAR 2.0!” We are all going to die.

[tcmafreak]

3 hours ago, deester11 said:

I posted these quotes in the hire thread.  While I'm a wait and see kinda guy, I'm good with this hire.

Sorry. I read the majority of the pages in that thread, but once it got too repetitive I bailed out. 

[OrthoPTSD]

3 minutes ago, gazoo said:

I think Grady and TQ are top shelf. Grady was thriving with TQ playing next to him, and TQ as also killing it in there. I recall Brian Baldinger put a tape together of several plays of TQs showing how amazingly sting he was for his size, just destroying OL.

 But you need more than two dogs on the DL for them all to flourish. 

Roger that, the Baldinger clips were impressive. Ive said many times that for the first draft class of this FO to be a success it would have to be with TQ being a real contributor on the  interior, was bummed he got injured as was looking to see how he fared for full year of snaps.

But... 0 sacks, 1 TFL in 11 games. And coming back from injury.

He has the most upside on the interior no doubt tho

[Freddies 3rd Cuz]

I'm okay with the hire but all this rah rah stuff is nothing more than conjecture at this point. Be careful how soon you crown his *** because many here will be stoning him to death the first time we give up 20+ pts. 

As I said I like the hire but we’ll see come about next November. Until then draft and acquire some freaking talent on that side of the ball or he'll be another one bites the dust in Atl. We've had like one top ten defense since Ronald Reagon was president 🤷‍♂️

[Moist Words]

5 hours ago, falconsd56 said:

That hard coaching style works great...until it doesn't.

We have seen that here in Atlanta with Bill Kollar.

He was that same type of coach and had great success here with the "Bomb squad" and some other good units but it eventually wore thin and guys didn't take to it well.

As with pretty much everything, it boils down to 1 thing.....are you winning with that approach?

If that is a yes then people respond to it.....if it is no then you just come off as an *******.

And as we all know......you have to be good enough to be an *******.

He was on the Saints the last few years, they haven't done all that great, and the players are still singing his praises. Not really concerned with this one.

[gazoo]

3 hours ago, OrthoPTSD said:

Roger that, the Baldinger clips were impressive. Ive said many times that for the first draft class of this FO to be a success it would have to be with TQ being a real contributor on the  interior, was bummed he got injured as was looking to see how he fared for full year of snaps.

But... 0 sacks, 1 TFL in 11 games. And coming back from injury.

He has the most upside on the interior no doubt tho

I can’t recall how many, but once he got his footing this year he was generating a bunch of QQ Knockdowns. These are legal hits done just befoe QB releases or as he is releasing. 
 

Offenses can slow pretty much any interior DL not named Aron Donald, they can largely contain two good DTs, but if you get a 3rd really good DL out there with them all 3 can play at a very high level when all on the field at same time.  We saw an immediate impact on Grady’s play when TQ went down. 
 

For all we know Nielson can bring Timmy Horne, Jalen Dalton, Abdullah Anderson or  Derrick Tangelo along, but we are going to have a good DL this year, I pretty much guaranty it.

[PittsCreek]

One of my favorite quotes from the article that should calm some of the "he doesn't fit our current roster" crowd:

 

"I’ll tell you one of my favorite things about being here is how fast the players pick up the new things,” Nielsen said. “New fundamentals or a new technique or a new defense. Then the volume of information that they can retain. It’s challenged me to keep it fresh and continue to push them mentally. We have a smart group, and so we come out every day and do the same things. That’s been a real cool thing that you come in every day and figure out how can we make these guys better and keep it new for them."

[Hibachi]

9 hours ago, falconsd56 said:

That hard coaching style works great...until it doesn't.

We have seen that here in Atlanta with Bill Kollar.

He was that same type of coach and had great success here with the "Bomb squad" and some other good units but it eventually wore thin and guys didn't take to it well.

As with pretty much everything, it boils down to 1 thing.....are you winning with that approach?

If that is a yes then people respond to it.....if it is no then you just come off as an *******.

And as we all know......you have to be good enough to be an *******.

This happened before on the offensive side few years ago. It just never had time to get sour. The boy genius went west towards the Golden Gate Bridge