By Editorial Team - Herald Planet
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). ...
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