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A huge part of the New Orleans Saints’ recent success was the wave of changes to the coaching staff back in February 2017, when Saints coach Sean Payton made the tough but necessary decision to part ways with longtime assistants like linebackers coach Joe Vitt and defensive line coach Bill Johnson. Other developments followed as Payton scoured his staff looking for areas that needed improvement, even though many of the coaches he had to fire had been with him since he first came to New Orleans.
In their place, he went looking for teachers. And he found a great one in defensive line coach Ryan Nielsen, who had held that post with the North Carolina State Wolfpack since 2014. He was twice nominated for the Broyles Award, which recognizes the nation’s top assistant coach; former Saints coach Joe Brady won it this year for his impact on the LSU Tigers offense.
Nielsen recruited and coached up a unit that included multiple future NFL players, including four who would be picked in the first four rounds of the 2018 NFL Draft: Bradley Chubb (Denver Broncos), B.J. Hill (New York Giants), Justin Jones (Los Angeles Chargers), and Kentavius Street (San Francisco 49ers).
What all of these players have in common — and what Nielsen has instilled in the Saints’ defensive line — is sound technique that’s been refined after years of training. He teaches his players to engage opponents by striking them in their chest pads, translating skills from the weight room (specifically the bench press) to the practice field. It’s done wonders for inexperienced athletes the Saints have brought in over the last few years, like David Onyemata and Marcus Davenport (each of whom only really picked up playing football on defense in college).
On Wednesday, the Saints reunited Nielsen with one of his former students by signing journeyman defensive tackle T.Y. McGill. McGill was a senior on the 2014 squad Nielsen joined, functioning as the leading voice in the room that younger teammates like Chubb and Hill looked up to. McGill flourished under Nielsen’s coaching, racking up a career-best eight tackles for loss and three sacks before signing with the Seattle Seahawks as an undrafted rookie. He’s since spent time with nearly a dozen teams while trying to find his way in the NFL.
Now they’ll get the chance to work together again, and Nielsen can put his one-time protege through a week of practice in New Orleans before Monday’s game with the Indianapolis Colts. McGill will probably be competing with second-year pro Taylor Stallworth (who is on the practice squad after playing 365 snaps last season) to dress for this week’s kickoff, so he’ll need to rely on every tool and lesson Nielsen once taught him to keep his NFL career going strong.
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