Falcons hire Mike Nolan as new defensive coordinator
We know that Mike Nolan likes to wear suits. We'll have to see if needs some advice on bow-ties. (Associated Press)
The Falcons hired Mike Nolan, who received his start in coaching from Dan Reeves, as their new defensive coordinator on Tuesday.
He replaces Brian VanGorder, who left the team last week to become Auburn’s new defensive coordinator.
Nolan is considered a 3-4 coach. But Falcons coach Mike Smith’s respect for him from their days together in Baltimore runs deep. They will blend the principles of Nolan’s 3-4 with Smith’s 4-3.
The Falcons hired Dirk Koetter as offensive coordinator on Sunday.
Team owner Arthur Blank expects the new coordinators to bring a new set of eyes and expertise to the team.
“Their ability . . . to be totally objective, cold-hearted and unemotional about the young men that we have on the roster [should be an asset],” Blank said. “[We’ll] bring in some folks that will be able to give us maybe some new perspective, maybe some different perspective not only on team questions, but on player issues that we may have as well.”
Despite revamping the secondary and trying to bolster the pass rush, the Falcons struggled to improve their pass defense. Since 2008, they’ve ranked 21st (2008, 220.4), 28th (2009, 241.9), 22nd (2010, 226.6) and 20th (2011, 236.6).
“Moving forward, this defense needs to continue its growth and evolution as a passionate and fiery defense, one that is going to fly to the football, disrupt, be opportunistic and capitalized on opportunities to turn the game around; flip the game in critical situations,” general manager Thomas Dimitroff said. “We’ll look for a coordinator who will [aid] Coach Smith and his approach to putting that type of aggressive defense on the field.”
Nolan has been a defensive coordinator in the NFL for 14 seasons. He also was San Francisco’s head coach from 2005 to 2008.
“Mike Nolan is an established coordinator in this League,” said Falcons head coach Mike Smith in a statement released by the team. “He brings more than 25 years of NFL experience to our team and has been a coordinator at this level for 14 years. Mike has a history of developing physically intimidating defensive units, and we are fortunate to have him join our staff.”
Nolan spent the last two seasons as the Miami Dolphins’ defensive coordinator.
Last season, the Dolphins boasted the third best run defense in the NFL, allowing just 95.6 yards per game and 3.7 yards per carry. His defense also produced 41 sacks which ranked tied for 10th in the NFL and allowed the sixth fewest points per game at 19.6. The Dolphins also ranked seventh in third-down percentage (33.8) and sixth in red zone defense, holding opponents to a 44.2 touchdown percentage inside the 20.
In 2010, Nolan’s defense ranked among the league’s top ten in overall defense, pass defense and run defense, and was one of just five units in the League to accomplish that feat. Nolan joined Miami after spending the 2009 season as the defensive coordinator of the Denver Broncos. Under his tutelage, Denver’s defense improved to seventh in the NFL in total defense after finishing 29th in 2008. Denver’s pass defense was equally impressive, ranking third in the NFL, allowing just 186.3 yards per game through the air.
Prior to joining the Broncos’ staff, Nolan served as the San Francisco 49ers’ head coach from 2005 to 2008. During Nolan’s four-year tenure with the club, the 49ers were one of the NFL’s most consistent teams in stopping the run. San Francisco ranked fourth in the league in yards per carry during that period surrendering just 3.9 yards per rush.
Nolan spent four seasons in Baltimore from 2001 to 2004, including the last three as the defensive coordinator. Nolan’s group tied for the NFL lead in takeaways (106) while ranking fifth in the league in both points per game allowed (18.8) and third down percentage (34.7). He also coached five Ravens defenders to nine trips to the Pro Bowl, while tutoring back-to-back AP Defensive Players of the Year in LB Ray Lewis (2003) and S Ed Reed (2004).
The New York Giants made Nolan the NFL’s youngest defensive coordinator in 1993 at the age of 34. He spent the next eight seasons as a defensive coordinator with the Giants (1993-96), Redskins (1997-99) and Jets (2000). In his first year with the Giants, his defense led the League allowing just 12.8 points per game. His coaching career began at his alma mater, Oregon University, where he served as a graduate assistant in 1981. He went on to coach at Stanford University and Rice University as a linebackers and defensive backs coach before the Denver Broncos hired him to be the special teams/linebackers coach in 1987. He spent six seasons with the Broncos and helped the team reach the Super Bowl in the 1987 and 1989 seasons.
–D. Orlando Ledbetter, The Atlanta Falcons beat blog
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404 comments Add your comment
BUCKO
January 17th, 2012
5:29 pm
Falcons you not fooling me you made the O C AND D C PICKS WHERE WE CAN HAVE NO. ONE PICK NEXT YEAR. PICK THE WORST D C AND OC RECORD IN THE NFL THIS YEAR GO FALCONS.
Joshua Malavenda
January 17th, 2012
5:30 pm
His defense was the only thing worth watching from the Miami Dolphins. if I was the coach i would have made the same hire because spags is known for his exotic bliz packages using safieties and other secondary and our seconday isnt good enough to do that. Mike nolan is known for using lb blizes and our lb crew is perfect for that.
All we need to do now is get a couple more players and reunite Mike singletary with nolan as his lb coach, and our defense will be similar to the music that gerogia is known for called Crunk, Whatttttttttttt! Okayyyyyyyyyyy!
Seen it all since 1968
January 17th, 2012
5:30 pm
If all I knew about the Falcons now was what I saw from reading many of the comments so far, I’d be slitting my wrists.
Questions for all the monday morning coaches, GMs and QBs:
Name any Falcons’ coach that has had a better record than Mike Smith.
How many teams in the league have better records since Smith took over the HC job here?
Wonder what the Green Bay fans think about the Pack’s one and done loss to the Jints? What will GB do about it?
Born"N" The USA.
January 17th, 2012
5:31 pm
the falcons defense will not get better until they get a solid pass rush , and fix the secondary. move grimes to another position, get another corner, im not real sure about Dunta , i dont know if he can play single coverage any better than the rest of them.fix it ,or prepare for the same results next year or worse.
Michael M.
January 17th, 2012
5:32 pm
Smitty wont be going nowhere no time soon…..he could have a losing season next year and guess what ? He will be there the following year. I don’t think they will have a losing season next year now, not with this hiring today……now they need to get the rest of the staff in place and start evaluating the players and what they need to do
Born"N" The USA.
January 17th, 2012
5:33 pm
rodgers has more time for insurance commercials!
Michael M.
January 17th, 2012
5:38 pm
Breeze has alot of off time to make Nyquil spots too……………..ha ! ha !
dirty bird
January 17th, 2012
5:39 pm
The dolphins D was solid and carried the team. A good hire since he has built the D where ever he has been. It’s obvious We NEED to build.
Michael M.
January 17th, 2012
5:40 pm
Speaking of Saints…come on over Aint trolls and lets have some fun……I feel good today boys
The Devil You Know
January 17th, 2012
5:41 pm
There’s an old saying, “The devil you know vs the devil you don’t know.” With Smith hiring his old cronies, he’s hiring the devil he knows. He knows what they can do…and what they can’t do. This is not the time to hire the “devil you know.” It’s time to take a bold. We won’t get to the Super Bowl this way. Smith wants “yes men” around him. They’re not going to being anything new.
Peter
January 17th, 2012
5:41 pm
I have hope now……this guy can change the way we play !
Max
January 17th, 2012
5:41 pm
I like the hire- although Spags would have been good too. Hey, at least they didn’t hire Jack Del Rio!
AmericanKris
January 17th, 2012
5:43 pm
Great pick up by the Falcons. Where are all the Saints trolls? Did they go in hiding?
Scott Case
January 17th, 2012
5:43 pm
GREAT HIRE ARTHUR!!
fansince74
January 17th, 2012
5:43 pm
The teams who are consistent winners are those who continue to build over the long haul and don’t over re-act to every disappointing loss. Organizations who fire their head coaches every 2-4 years are not winning on a regular basis. The Falcons are finally relevant and some of you want to run Coach Smith out of town. He’s never had a losing season as the Falcons Head Coach and no other head coach in Falcons history can say that. Jeff Fisher who is esteemed as the top pick of the Head Coaches to hire this year only finished above .500 six of his 16 seasons as the Head Coach of the Oilers/Titans. The playoff win(s) will come. FYI: Have any of you noticed how well the teams that have knocked the Falcons out of the playoffs have done. The Cardinals went to the Super Bowl and almost won. The Packers won the Super Bowl before going 15-1 this year. The Giants are playing their best football right now and may very well get to the Super Bowl themselves. The Falcons will enter the playoffs while hitting their stride in due time, but until they do keep some perspective would you.
Scott Case
January 17th, 2012
5:45 pm
Devil you know – look at his resume before running your mouth. This guy is one of the best DCs in the league and brings an IMMEDIATE upgrade on all facets – coverage, toughness, fundamentals – He is a big time hire and might even be able to teach Dunta how to cover!
abby normal
January 17th, 2012
5:46 pm
I’m good with this hire. Nolan is a PRO defensive coordinator, not some overmatched college coach. If you don’t give 110 percent for this guy, your butt is on the bench. Heads up to Dunta, Ray Edwards, Peria Jerry and their like.
Michael M.
January 17th, 2012
5:46 pm
The Trolls don’t have no ammo to fire at us right now so they wont be seen for awhile so u guys can forget bout them fellas for some time..they have their own worries at the moment
steven A.
January 17th, 2012
5:47 pm
Future Head Coach of the Atlanta Falcons. Put him next to Coach Smith, he definitely looks “HEAD and SHOULDERS above Mike “mr predictable” Smith in terms of “common sense and smartness”
Falcon Realist
January 17th, 2012
5:50 pm
Grade A!!!
They got this one right.
Let’s hope Mike Smith stays out of his way and allows Nolan to set the table for the defense. And please allow Nolan to have final say on the defensive roster.
Nativebird
January 17th, 2012
5:52 pm
Good solid hire. Our defense, while definitely needing improvement in spots, is not the problem with this franchise. Top 5 in NfC in total d, top 12 in the NFL. That’s pretty good, certainly not indicative of a bust. Nolan should create a sense of toughness with this group and challenge them, make them better. Our new boy DIRK on the other hand has his work cut out for him.
Alex
January 17th, 2012
5:56 pm
I say let abraham walk. Babineaux moves to DE while peters plays nose. Edwards is a perfect DE for this system. Spoon and lofton in the middle. With money freed up from Abraham sign a OLB and draft another. Nicholas should be on special teams so idk why we gave him a 5 year deal. If grimes leaves we might be okay after all. Or get Carlos Rogers from SF. Franks starts opposite of dunta Owens comes in as a nickelback but plays outside. Move dunta or franks to slot. Let darrin walls play, he’s got the ability to be special. Get rid of decoud, bring back sanders to mentor a safety that we draft. I’m happy to see Nolan in Atlanta. Also, draft a tightend. And steal one of the guards from New Orleans.
techduck
January 17th, 2012
5:58 pm
I told you so.And you thought the OC was bad.I saw this coming from the start.Hey fans are you still going to buy your season tickets? Go for it then.You just remeber this. You are just one of 60,ooo plus that is paying one player $500,000 for one game,thats right, just one game $500,000 for one player and there is 16 games in one season.Add it up.8,000,000 four one year.I can stay home and not fight the traffic and see a lot more on TV and spend my money on my kids and go to CHURCH and paid my ties before i would to such a grettie sports
Longtimefan
January 17th, 2012
5:59 pm
Totally agree with Fansince74. Couldn’t have said it better. Couldn’t please some people if Blank reincarnated Lombardi.
Bill
January 17th, 2012
5:59 pm
Damn great hire..Thanks for getting a great D-man..I like the 3-4 better but we’ll see what happens.. Cutter, Nolan will do just great.. Now kick some azzz Falcons.
Big American Bigness
January 17th, 2012
6:02 pm
““Their ability . . . to be totally objective, cold-hearted and unemotional about the young men that we have on the roster [should be an asset],” Blank said.”
HAHAHA!!! Yep, it’s all business here men, Arthur “The Terminator” Blank has spoken! Cold-hearted and unemotional IS the American business model isn’t it? Donald Trump would be proud of Blank’s pronouncement.
D-Man
January 17th, 2012
6:04 pm
Look, until they FIX THE OFFENSIVE LINE it won’t matter who they bring in. You can not win in this league with a make-shift o-line with a deer in the headlights QB behind it. I like Matt Ryan, but when “that moment” arrives, be it a MNF game, any prime time game, or a playoff game – dude ish his drawers cause the o-line looks like turnstiles at Marta on a free day, so we have to protect him like he was made of china. WE can not do that with this o-line I don’t care what the stats are saying. Most of those stats, and this absolutely kills me when it comes to our o-line apologists, come against crappy teams with crappy d-lines and its been this way FOREVER. WE gotta fix this, or else everything else is for naught. Unless Mike Nolan is going to make our defense an over the top great one like the Ravens are/were where we won’t have to score much, there isn’t much to get happy about and that’s just being real. It is time for Blank to stop putting up $$$ for pretty named skilled players and get that offensive line in order. It starts in the trenches people! I like where the defense (outside of the secondary with no disrespect to Optimus Grimes) is headed, but mannnn I’m getting tired of our not so primetime swiss cheese o-line. If we don’t get it right in the trenches, this is much ado about nothing. At least I hope these new guys tell Smitty and TD this, which btw they SHOULD already know.
Steve
January 17th, 2012
6:06 pm
Do we have the personnel for a 3-4? That’s a funny question given we obviously didn’t have the personnel for a 4-3. Our DT’s were ok. Our DE’s were ok. Our LB’s were better than the others.
My opinion we only really need a hoss of a DT and maybe one LB to make the transition. That being said .. Nolan is one of the few guys that I think could figure out how to coach both schemes effectively. In fact, in today’s NFL, you run both schemes frequently anyway, going 3-4 and sliding an LB up in semi-frequent situations, or going 4-3 and sliding a DE into coverage.
Van Gorder put together a solid defense without any real stars. I liked him, but we all knew he had a history of changing teams. Nolan does as well, but I think if he finds the right situation he could be here for a few years.
J-Man
January 17th, 2012
6:09 pm
I talked to SeenthisB4 he is trolling over on ESPN’s blog we got to talking about Brees being a Free Agent and the Saint are gonna have to Waste a Franchise tag on him. And that they were gonna lose Nicks and Marcus Colston. He obviously thinks his team has an unlimited Cap.
Alex
January 17th, 2012
6:09 pm
I think I know who our first pick will be in April… Josh Chapman NT from Alabama. we’ve already been projected to take him. But now it’s a given. Idk if I like it tho.
Fred
January 17th, 2012
6:12 pm
Great pick Smitty–love Nolan. Now get him the players he needs and let Koetter get a o-line and another speedy running back and lets play..Go Falcons!
Can’t wait.
john
January 17th, 2012
6:16 pm
Saints will interview Steve Spagnuolo tomorrow.http://www.macsfootballblog.com/2012/01/saints-to-interview-steve-spagnuolo.html
Billy
January 17th, 2012
6:17 pm
some of you guys should to stick to giving the half time bands advice like you did in school leave the football to the guys who know football. Your dads were probably the same guys screaming to get rid of Leeman Bennett we know how that turned out, if you fire the current coach who are we bringing in suey Bobby or lets release Matt Ryan i sure Redman or John Parker Wilson is better. Before you can replace someone have somebody better Coach Dolan has been a very good defensive coordinator where ever he has been this is a good hire.
bunk nolan
January 17th, 2012
6:22 pm
you fans are moorons
T Rob
January 17th, 2012
6:25 pm
man we sure got alot of wanna be coaches around the ATL ,since everyone seems to know so much why dont you pick up an application from Mr. Blank.
Runner-
January 17th, 2012
6:26 pm
Lets all welcome the Atlanta Jaguars!!!!!!!!!!!!
ed
January 17th, 2012
6:29 pm
I don’t know if we change to a 3-4, but I’m stunned people are acting like we have the personel for the 4-3, but not the 3-4. Our interior defensive linemen are a huge weakness. Our linebackers are serviceable at worst.
frank
January 17th, 2012
6:33 pm
theres a lot teams that would like to have the falcons chance to play in the playoffs and you see what happened to green bay they had two weeks off and looked like falcons keep up the good work mike smith and the falcons
old man
January 17th, 2012
6:38 pm
I’m late getting in on this, so I’m surely repeating. I heard on the radio about Biermann being an outside LB in a 3-4, and the I just read the idea of Sidbury, and that sounded at least as good.
So yes, it is possible that all we lack is a NT.
Does a 3-4 allow Dante Robinson to play tighter coverage? He has been sorry at the soft coverage we have been playing. I don’t know enough to know.
old man
January 17th, 2012
6:40 pm
Spoon and Loftin as a ILB duo sounds pretty awesome.
Athenzdawg
January 17th, 2012
6:41 pm
yay more people out of position because they don’t know their assignments. I can see Dunta “can’t catch a cold” Robinson already throwing his hands up. On the plus side atleast we can run screen plays >.>
bama falcon fan
January 17th, 2012
6:43 pm
Good news. One thing I like is if Smith and the team falters next season, Nolan is a good canidate to take over. He knows how to coach defense if head coach steps aside and puts his ego in a basket.
steven A.
January 17th, 2012
6:44 pm
George Will once said “when President Clinton walked into a room, everyone knew he was the smartest
man in that room” The players will figure out things for themselves. Mr. Nolan will be the new “Informal
leader of this team.”
old man
January 17th, 2012
6:44 pm
@D-Man:
Yes. Code Blue. O-Line. And then we gotta go get some O-Line. Code Blue.
old man
January 17th, 2012
6:46 pm
And after that, another heapin’ helpin’ of some o’ that O-Line.
Code Blue.
steven A.
January 17th, 2012
6:54 pm
NFL is a “copycat league.” having said that, it made no sense to hire Dirk Koetter other than his name sounds like a “good football” name. Many more creative people who could make Matt Ryan work to his strengths. He will “never be Rogers, Brady, Brees , or even Cam Newton. He is much closer to Tim Tebow, without the toughness.
dirty bird
January 17th, 2012
6:58 pm
BREAKING NEWS…. Saban to the Colts!
Danny
January 17th, 2012
7:00 pm
I think this is a GREAT hire. However, I believe that the Offensive Cord. pic is going to be the demise of Coach Smith after the 2012 season.
Delbert D.
January 17th, 2012
7:01 pm
I like the Nolan hire. It is an important piece for the Falcons to start building for the 3-4, if Smitty and Dimitroff decide to do that. Personally, I think that it is inevitable with the league shifting rapidly to more passing.
Durt E Byrd
January 17th, 2012
7:08 pm
The only thing that worries me about this hire is that he is a 3-4 guy and Smith wants a 4-3… and they’re going to BLEND the two… riiiiiiight.
Seems like Smtih hired the guy then he ought to let him run his freakin system.
I see a train wrech coming folks….