At the very least, Nate Ollie sounds like the right guy to be in charge of rejuvenating the Falcons’ dormant pass rush.
“Everything that we’re trying to do now, it’s like we’re trying to be like Mike Tyson and throw haymakers,” the Falcons’ new defensive line coach said last week. “We’re getting off the ball, attacking, throwing haymakers. No jabs. It’s all haymakers — that’s what we’re trying to do.”
It’s crowd-pleasing rhetoric. Speaking with media along with the rest of the team’s assistant coaches, Ollie exuded enthusiasm and passion. He laid out his vision for an aggressive, hellbent style to pressure quarterbacks.
“Some guys read (the offensive line), stay on the line,” Ollie said. “But, shoot, all I know is, Get off the ball and attack. That’s all I know.”
He gushed not only about first-round picks Jalon Walker and James Pearce Jr., but about returnees Ruke Orhorhoro, Bralen Trice, Brandon Dorlus, Zach Harrison and others. He shared his plan to give the bigger-bodied Dorlus and Harrison playing time as edge rushers.
“This guy can (pass) rush,” Ollie said of Dorlus. “You see what’s on my mind. I’m always thinking about rush.”
Credit: Jason Getz / Jason.Getz@ajc.com
Credit: Jason Getz / Jason.Getz@ajc.com
There is a reason why Ollie is here (succeeding Jay Rodgers) and the same with defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich (replacing Jimmy Lake).
Falcons fans know the deal. The defense had 31 sacks last season, ranking 31st in the NFL. They were also 31st in 2022 and 32nd in ’21. Over the past seven years — the duration of their playoff drought — they’ve finished in the bottom half of the league each season in total sacks.
The history of meager Falcons pass rushes extends longer than that.
Ollie teaches what has been called an “attack-style front.” Rather than reading the offensive line’s movement to determine how to defend, Ollie wants the defensive line (and outside linebackers) to aggressively charge the quarterback. It’s the style he has adopted since his first NFL job, as an assistant defensive line coach with the Philadelphia Eagles in 2019 under defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz. Former Jets coach Robert Saleh is another practitioner.
“In this front, you just see collectively around the league that guys that run the front, that have been in the front, that they hit career highs and they go off and they get paid because you put a lot of premium (on attacking),” he said. “You take the thinking out, you just let them go.”
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
This is Ollie’s fifth NFL job and second as the primary defensive line coach. His first such opportunity came in Indianapolis, in 2022-23. In 2021, the Colts managed 33 sacks in the year prior to his arrival, then jumped to 44 sacks in his first year and 51 sacks in 2023, a team record for its Indianapolis era. That season, the Colts had the lowest blitz percentage in the NFL.
Curiously, Ollie was not retained after the 2023 season and took a job as assistant defensive line coach with the Houston Texans for the 2024 season. The Colts fell back to 36 sacks last year.
Ollie will work together with outside linebackers coach Jacquies Smith and defensive assistant John Timu to develop the pass rush. Smith, in his second year, will oversee first-round pick edge rushers Walker and Pearce.
A favorite saying of Ollie’s is “four equals one,” meaning four pass rushers work together. Another of his tenets is attacking offenses with waves of pass rushers, the throwing of haymakers being a taxing activity.
“And it’s hard to do that for 60 plays in a row,” Ollie said. “So we need waves of guys to go out there.”
Ollie has a story that makes it easy to want for him to succeed with the Falcons. He played defensive tackle at Ball State (2010-13) and was a team captain and three-time all-conference pick. He studied criminal justice and intended to be a police officer until a pivotal moment in his junior year, when his father Anthony died.
Credit: TNS
Credit: TNS
On the day before the team was to leave for its bowl game, his position coach, Chad Wilt, drove Ollie from Ball State’s campus in Muncie, Indiana, to Chicago for the funeral and back.
“On the way back home, we just kind of had this long conversation and we were talking,” Ollie said. “It just kind of helped me realize that it’s bigger than X’s and O’s. That was why I wanted to get in (coaching), just to fulfill my purpose.”
The two continue to communicate regularly. When Ollie proposed to his now-wife, Ambria, Wilt and his family were there to help celebrate. When Wilt turned 40, Wilt’s wife, Megan, flew in Ollie as a surprise to join the family.
“Love him like a son, love Ambria like a daughter-in-law,” Wilt told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “Tremendous human being.”
Ollie coaches with the same approach as his mentor.
“These guys are pros, they’re not college kids, but still — conversations he’s having of helping them manage through this professional process as husbands, as dads — they’re still young men,” said Wilt, now co-special teams coordinator and rush ends coach at Michigan State.
It would be stupendous for all involved if it were to work out as planned. In this iteration of the Falcons’ pass rush, it helps that two first-round picks will be throwing the haymakers.
“What’s the saying?” Ollie asked. “It’s the Jimmys and Joes, not the X’s and O’s. We’ve got the guys. I really believe that we have the guys in the room that can do it.”
Another attempt to create a pass rush is underway in Flowery Branch.
“I say, ‘Put God first, everything else will fall into place,’” Ollie said. “And just throughout my career, it just gets done.”
If that’s what it takes to regularly bring down quarterbacks, no arguments here.
Updated to correct the spelling of Ruke Orhorhoro
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