Getty Image / Tim Nwachukwu
It has only been a few weeks since the end of the NFL’s regular season, but we have already seen a ton of coaching changes in the NFC South.
We’ve known for a while that Carolina Panthers were going to have a decision to make at head coach after firing Matt Rhule early in the year.
They ended up hiring Frank Reich.
Some of the other vacancies in the division were a bit more surprising.
First the Tampa Bay Buccaneers fired Byron Leftwich, opening up their offensive coordinator position.
Then another coordinator position unexpectedly opened in the division.
The Atlanta Falcons were left looking for a defensive coordinator when Dean Pees decided to retire after 2 seasons with the team.
The Falcons wasted no time finding a replacement. Yesterday, they lured New Orleans Saints co-defensive coordinator Ryan Nielsen away from their rival to take fill this job.
After the hire was announced, Saints star defensive lineman Cameron Jordan tweeted a hilarious reaction to the news that his coach would be leaving and heading to a rival franchise.
Ryan to Dc job was inevitable. Top tier DL coach in terms of developing pass rush and emphasizing technique on run and gap integrity. 😔🫡 wish him the semi-best as he willingly went to the Failcons… happy-ish for him pic.twitter.com/la3TaOW4id
— cameron jordan (@camjordan94) January 28, 2023
Unfortunately for Nielsen, he’s not going to have a pass rusher of Jordan’s caliber with the Falcons. The Falcons’ leader in sacks in 2022 only had 6 while Jordan had 8.5. The previous season he racked up an impressive 12.5.
Along with that, he’ll be going from a team whose defense was in the top 10 in points allowed per game to a team that was in the bottom 10.
The Atlanta Falcons will be hoping that he can transform their defense to look a bit more like the defense we saw from the New Orleans Saints this past season.