\u201cSome guys read (the offensive line), stay on the line,\u201d Ollie said. \u201cBut, shoot, all I know is, Get off the ball and attack. That\u2019s all I know.\u201d<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis guy can (pass) rush,\u201d Ollie said of Dorlus. \u201cYou see what\u2019s on my mind. I\u2019m always thinking about rush.\u201d<\/p>\n
There is a reason why Ollie is here (succeeding Jay Rodgers) and the same with defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich (replacing Jimmy Lake).<\/p>\n
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 \u201921. Over the past seven years \u2014 the duration of their playoff drought \u2014 they\u2019ve finished in the bottom half of the league each season in total sacks.<\/p>\n
The history of meager Falcons pass rushes extends longer than that.<\/p>\n
Ollie teaches what has been called an \u201cattack-style front.\u201d Rather than reading the offensive line\u2019s movement to determine how to defend, Ollie wants the defensive line (and outside linebackers) to aggressively charge the quarterback. It\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn 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),\u201d he said. \u201cYou take the thinking out, you just let them go.\u201d<\/p>\n
This is Ollie\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
A favorite saying of Ollie\u2019s is \u201cfour equals one,\u201d 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd it\u2019s hard to do that for 60 plays in a row,\u201d Ollie said. \u201cSo we need waves of guys to go out there.\u201d<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
On the day before the team was to leave for its bowl game, his position coach, Chad Wilt, drove Ollie from Ball State\u2019s campus in Muncie, Indiana, to Chicago for the funeral and back.<\/p>\n
\u201cOn the way back home, we just kind of had this long conversation and we were talking,\u201d Ollie said. \u201cIt just kind of helped me realize that it\u2019s bigger than X\u2019s and O\u2019s. That was why I wanted to get in (coaching), just to fulfill my purpose.\u201d<\/p>\n
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\u2019s wife, Megan, flew in Ollie as a surprise to join the family.<\/p>\n
\u201cLove him like a son, love Ambria like a daughter-in-law,\u201d Wilt told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. \u201cTremendous human being.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ollie coaches with the same approach as his mentor.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese guys are pros, they\u2019re not college kids, but still \u2014 conversations he\u2019s having of helping them manage through this professional process as husbands, as dads \u2014 they\u2019re still young men,\u201d said Wilt, now co-special teams coordinator and rush ends coach at Michigan State.<\/p>\n
It would be stupendous for all involved if it were to work out as planned. In this iteration of the Falcons\u2019 pass rush, it helps that two first-round picks will be throwing the haymakers.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat\u2019s the saying?\u201d Ollie asked. \u201cIt\u2019s the Jimmys and Joes, not the X\u2019s and O\u2019s. We\u2019ve got the guys. I really believe that we have the guys in the room that can do it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Another attempt to create a pass rush is underway in Flowery Branch.<\/p>\n
\u201cI say, \u2018Put God first, everything else will fall into place,\u2019\u201d Ollie said. \u201cAnd just throughout my career, it just gets done.\u201d<\/p>\n
If that\u2019s what it takes to regularly bring down quarterbacks, no arguments here.<\/p>\n
Updated to correct the spelling of Ruke Orhorhoro<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cSome guys read (the offensive line), stay on the line,\u201d Ollie said. \u201cBut, shoot, all I know is,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":29725,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2074],"tags":[2566,223,254,2554,224,7,6337,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-29724","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-atlanta-falcons","8":"tag-ajc-freelancer","9":"tag-atlanta","10":"tag-atlanta-falcons","11":"tag-atlantafalcons","12":"tag-falcons","13":"tag-football","14":"tag-mercedes-benz-stadium","15":"tag-nfl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114463794056918907","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29724","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29724"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29724\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29725"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29724"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29724"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29724"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}