Mike Nolan’s last stop as defensive coordinator

CalPolyTechnique

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CyberB0b said:
Yeah, he's a bum. There's a reason he's been coaching LBs for 5 years.
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If you look at his coaching history he’s been at a new job literally every 2-3 seasons.

Often when head coaches get the boot they work for a year or two as a coordinator and get another shot at head coach somewhere else. Nolan’s trajectory has gone from head coach, defensive coordinator, to just a positions coach.

That’s telling.
 
CyberB0b

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CalPolyTechnique said:
If you look at his coaching history he’s been at a new job literally every 2-3 seasons.

Often when head coaches get the boot they work for a year or two as a coordinator and get another shot at head coach somewhere else. Nolan’s trajectory has gone from head coach, defensive coordinator, to just a positions coach.

That’s telling.
Click to expand...

Yeah. It's obvious he's a guy who has had multiple shots, probably due to his last name, and has been on a downward spiral for the last decade. He got this job due to loyalty from Big Mac.
 
75boyz

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CalPolyTechnique said:
If you look at his coaching history he’s been at a new job literally every 2-3 seasons.

Often when head coaches get the boot they work for a year or two as a coordinator and get another shot at head coach somewhere else. Nolan’s trajectory has gone from head coach, defensive coordinator, to just a positions coach.

That’s telling.
Click to expand...


Yep, I made a similar post. The newly departed Marnelli just recently took his glowing resume of recent resume hires as 0-16 HC to failed DC to now defensive line coach with the Raiders.
Not trending upward.

AND as alluded to in a separate post, this too is a loyalty hire from the long lost days at Tampa with Gruden and Marinellis.
 
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superonyx

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Mr_C said:
I was very skeptical about the McCarthy hire at first. Then posters here persuaded me I was likely completely wrong and I think they were right.

Now I hope someone can make me feel better about Nolan. It sure seems like he’s never been that successful except for creating turnovers.

I wonder why McCarthy chose him.
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The hard part about this is to look at the alternatives. If a guy is on an NFL staff currently as a Defensive Coordinator then we can't touch him. So we are left digging into the bin of either defensive position coaches, DC's no longer in the league, or guys just fired. I guess in theory we could find the stud defense like the Niners and see if their defensive position coaches are really going to bring the experience we need and the scheme ect that will get us to the next level.

It seems like there isnt a hire outside of a defensive Head Coach that would come without fears. Even hiring a defensive HC would have the fear of who does he pick as offensive coordinators and coaches.

It seems like McCarthy wanted a coaching staff that was very leadership driven and experienced. Of course he also wanted guys who can work well with him and bring the attitude he wants for this team.

I can't think of a hire that would make me not nervous and questioning the decision.
 
superonyx

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TWOK11 said:
Stopping the run really doesn’t matter much in this era of NFL football. It has minimal correlation with winning.

Passing efficiency defense is all that really matters in terms of determining who wins games.
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The titans are not buying what you are selling. I doubt the niners are either.
 
DogFace

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superonyx said:
The hard part about this is to look at the alternatives. If a guy is on an NFL staff currently as a Defensive Coordinator then we can't touch him. So we are left digging into the bin of either defensive position coaches, DC's no longer in the league, or guys just fired. I guess in theory we could find the stud defense like the Niners and see if their defensive position coaches are really going to bring the experience we need and the scheme ect that will get us to the next level.

It seems like there isnt a hire outside of a defensive Head Coach that would come without fears. Even hiring a defensive HC would have the fear of who does he pick as offensive coordinators and coaches.

It seems like McCarthy wanted a coaching staff that was very leadership driven and experienced. Of course he also wanted guys who can work well with him and bring the attitude he wants for this team.

I can't think of a hire that would make me not nervous and questioning the decision.
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You make some damn good points. Thanks. I actually feel better. And you’re right. He had to be thinking about leadership and experience.

You’re also right that it’s not that easy to go out and find the next great guy. There are risks.
 
reddyuta

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The no 1 thing Nolan has to do is stop the run and makes teams one dimensional,we need our LBs to make plays and not getting taken out every play by olinemen,we need bigger DTs.
 
gimmesix

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TheSkaven said:
We all know what the definition of insanity is, and one of the worst problems that this defense has had over the last 4 years is the inability to stop the run. You’d have thought there would be major changes to address that after the Rams’ playoff loss. Nope. Same old thing.

So, I looked up Mike Nolan’s defenses and their success against the run. Surely, his focus on a big, run-stuffing nose tackle will be a better approach.

Well, I have to say, I’m horrified. Whatever happened in Atlanta from 2012-2014 was a complete train wreck.

2012 - 21st in the league in defense against the run, then 31st, then 21st. OK, I thought, maybe rushing yards isn’t a fair way to evaluate the guy, how about yards per carry? Oh no, it’s even worse, 29th, 31st then 15th.

I took a peak into what was being written in 2014 and it isn’t pretty. https://bleacherreport.com/articles...e-nolan-and-hc-mike-smith-can-fix-the-defense

What was written is that he had a terrible scheme that was inflexible and couldn’t adjust to the players’ strengths.

I don’t want to be pessimistic here from the beginning, but can someone explain to me why Mike Nolan is the answer to this team’s defensive woes?
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It's funny how statistics work. In that 2012 season, despite that run defense, Nolan's squad had the No. 5 scoring defense (18.7 points per game). The Falcons made the NFC Championship Game, but were edged by San Francisco. (Their defense gave up 28 points in both playoff games, so that was a lot like our playoff defenses.)

Passing defense was a big part of their success as they made 20 interceptions and were No. 1 in preventing passing TDs.

Next year, their interceptions dropped to 10 and they gave up 31 passing TDs (tougher schedule?). They dropped to 27th in scoring defense. So it seems Nolan's defenses depend heavily on creating interceptions.
 

408Cowboy

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Never paid attention to Atlanta so I'm curious who was the HC and what was his specialty those years?
 
superonyx

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DuncanIso said:
I’d keep Marinelli over Nolan.

And Marinelli needed fired yesterday.
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So you would keep a guy who deserved to be fired a long time ago.
That sounds like a winning strategy.

Why not tell us who you would take? Because you have no one that why.
No matter who is chosen you would find a reason to cry.
 
MichaelWinicki

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reddyuta said:
The no 1 thing Nolan has to do is stop the run and makes teams one dimensional,we need our LBs to make plays and not getting taken out every play by olinemen,we need bigger DTs.
Click to expand...

The 2019 Cowboys defense was 11th in yards given up via the run and 10th in yards per carry given up.

Those are respectable numbers.

What needs to improve are turnovers where this team is abysmal and pressuring the QB where they were only 16th.

They were 25th in completion percentage allowed.

It's the pass defense that's the problem.
 
75boyz

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gimmesix said:
It's funny how statistics work. In that 2012 season, despite that run defense, Nolan's squad had the No. 5 scoring defense (18.7 points per game). The Falcons made the NFC Championship Game, but were edged by San Francisco. (Their defense gave up 28 points in both playoff games, so that was a lot like our playoff defenses.)

Passing defense was a big part of their success as they made 20 interceptions and were No. 1 in preventing passing TDs.

Next year, their interceptions dropped to 10 and they gave up 31 passing TDs (tougher schedule?). They dropped to 27th in scoring defense. So it seems Nolan's defenses depend heavily on creating interceptions.
Click to expand...

So true. Maybe a similar post with your exact opening sentence describing the offense should be made with the appropriate context to prove how misleading "some" statistical numbers can be. For this year's offense especially.
 
jrumann59

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Nolan has been trading on what he did so long ago with Baltimore. That really is his claim to fame, he had Ray Lewis and Ed Reed and Suggs on his Defense.
 
TWOK11

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superonyx said:
The titans are not buying what you are selling. I doubt the niners are either.
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The Titans are winning because they are DOMINATING turnover margin. Nothing else matters when you generate 3 more turnovers than your opposition, you’ll win nearly every time regardless.

That being said, the Titans threw the ball more efficiently than their opposition in both playoff wins.

Derrick Henry’s stats are impressive, but they’re a confounding variable. It’s not actually the reason they are winning. If Baltimore doesn’t turn the ball over, they almost certainly win that game regardless of what Henry did.
 
MichaelWinicki

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TWOK11 said:
The Titans are winning because they are DOMINATING turnover margin. Nothing else matters when you generate 3 more turnovers than your opposition, you’ll win nearly every time regardless.

That being said, the Titans threw the ball more efficiently than their opposition in both playoff wins.

Derrick Henry’s stats are impressive, but they’re a confounding variable. It’s not actually the reason they are winning. If Baltimore doesn’t turn the ball over, they almost certainly win that game regardless of what Henry did.
Click to expand...

The two best teams this past season in stopping the run (in yards per game) were:

Tampa Bay
NY Jets

OK if you say yards given up per game were meaningless how about the two leaders in allowing the fewest yards per carry?

Tampa Bay
NY Jets

Both averaged 3.3 yards per carry.


BTW Dallas gave up 4.1 yards per carry.

Titans gave up 4.0 yards per carry.

The Niners?

They gave up 4.5 yards per carry– Which was 23rd in the NFL.

HOWEVER they were 5th in the NFL in sacks and 7th in the NFL in QB rating.

The Niners were far better vs. the pass than they were the run.
 
Whyjerry

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TheSkaven said:
We all know what the definition of insanity is, and one of the worst problems that this defense has had over the last 4 years is the inability to stop the run. You’d have thought there would be major changes to address that after the Rams’ playoff loss. Nope. Same old thing.

So, I looked up Mike Nolan’s defenses and their success against the run. Surely, his focus on a big, run-stuffing nose tackle will be a better approach.

Well, I have to say, I’m horrified. Whatever happened in Atlanta from 2012-2014 was a complete train wreck.

2012 - 21st in the league in defense against the run, then 31st, then 21st. OK, I thought, maybe rushing yards isn’t a fair way to evaluate the guy, how about yards per carry? Oh no, it’s even worse, 29th, 31st then 15th.

I took a peak into what was being written in 2014 and it isn’t pretty. https://bleacherreport.com/articles...e-nolan-and-hc-mike-smith-can-fix-the-defense

What was written is that he had a terrible scheme that was inflexible and couldn’t adjust to the players’ strengths.

I don’t want to be pessimistic here from the beginning, but can someone explain to me why Mike Nolan is the answer to this team’s defensive woes?
Click to expand...

I am glad you posted this. When they hired him I warned people that he was garbage. He took a decent Atlanta D and destroyed it in 3 years. That’s the main reason why a guy that was “anointed” hasn’t gotten another HC or DC job. He proved in ATL that he is not a great coach. Maybe he learned something from Allen in NO. We must hope.

He worries me.
 
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