Ryan Nielsen has served as a defensive coordinator on three different teams over the past three years. He is not going to have one other DC gig in 2025, but he has landed a brand new opportunity within the NFL.
Nielsen has a deal in place with the Bills, as first reported by The Athletic’s Bruce Feldman. He shall be brought in as a senior defensive assistant as a part of Sean McDermott‘s staff. Feldman adds Nielsen had interest from multiple teams in the course of the 2025 hiring cycle.
The 45-year-old worked in the faculty ranks from 2002-16 before joining the Saints. Nielsen spent five years serving as Recent Orleans’ line of defense coach, earning the title of assistant head coach in the course of the final yr of that span. When Sean Payton departed, Dennis Allen was promoted to move coach in 2022; Nielsen was considered one of the 2 staffers tapped to fill the vacated role of defensive coordinator for that season.
The Saints ranked fifth in points allowed and ninth in total defense in 2022, but Nielsen found himself on the move after the campaign. He took charge of the Falcons’ defense for the 2023 campaign, however the intra-divisional swap didn’t produce a duplication of the Saints’ success on defense from the yr prior. Arthur Smith was fired at the tip of the season, and to little surprise Raheem Morris opted to make sweeping changes on the coordinator spots.
That left Nielsen in need of a brand new position, and he managed to land one other DC gig by joining Doug Pederson in Jacksonville. Pederson made a lot of changes to his defensive staff particularly last offseason prematurely of a campaign through which he found himself on the new seat. Things didn’t go in keeping with plan on either side of the ball for the Jags, and Pederson’s firing has since been followed by several coaching and front office changes. Recent HC Liam Coen recently brought in Anthony Campanile as Jacksonville’s defensive coordinator, paving the best way for Nielsen to maneuver on.
The Bills had Leslie Frazier in place as defensive coordinator from 2017-22, but his decision to take a yr off from coaching led to McDermott taking up play-calling duties for the 2023 campaign. Last offseason, McDermott promoted Bobby Babich to the role of DC; after coping with several injuries on defense, Buffalo finished the yr eleventh in points allowed and seventeenth in total defense. Nielsen will aim to assist the team take a step forward in 2025.
