Quote:In understanding how Smith and Atlanta landed on Nielsen to be their next defensive coordinator, it begins with the same buzzwords a lot of coaches say and Smith pushes to believe: aggressiveness, toughness, being physical.

“Those are all of the things that I believe in coming up through all of the places I’ve been,” Nielsen said. “You just take a little bit out of every place and every coach that you’ve been around, and you try to take the best of that and marry it into your philosophies.”

Quote:At every place he has worked in his career, Nielsen has worked with the defensive line, from the lower levels of college football to the New Orleans Saints beginning in 2017. And he has had experience helping create a pass rush -- the area the Falcons have struggled with the most after 39 total sacks between the past two seasons.

“What he’s going to do is actually bring a pass rush,” Saints defensive lineman Cameron Jordan said on ESPN Radio's "Canty & Carlin." “Now he’s going to bring in some pass-rushers, and if not, he knows how to cultivate them. One of the best teachers of the defensive line that I’ve ever been a part of.”

Quote:“Stop the run, and stop it in a light box, which is impressive if you don’t need to allocate resources to stop the run, if you can do that then you are playing pretty good run defense,” Nielsen said. “Attack, in everything that we’re going to do, we’re going to attack, and that’s in all phases of the defense, attack at every position.”