The Minnesota Vikings made a request to interview their first defensive coordinator in Brian Flores early Saturday morning and they added to that list on Sunday night. Per ESPN’s Adam Schefter, the Vikings have requested to interview New Orleans Saints co-defensive coordinator Ryan Nielsen for their vacant defensive coordinator position.
A former defensive tackle for USC in the late 1990s, Nielsen spent one season on the Philadelphia Eagles practice squad and one year with the Los Angeles Avengers of the Arena Football League before getting into coaching.
Nielsen cut his teeth on the college side before the New Orleans Saints hired him to coach the defensive line prior to the 2017 season. In 2021, he was named associate head coach along with his defensive line coach duties and was the co-defensive coordinator this past season.
The defense is quite a bit different than what Ed Donatell ran last season. The Saints run mostly four down linemen using 4-2-5 sets 11th-most and 4-3-4 sixth-most in the NFL last season per Sports Info Solutions.
If the Vikings were to hire Nielsen, it would be a shift back to what they did under Mike Zimmer, but there is still plenty of different sets, as they ran 175 snaps with only two down lineman and 68 snaps with one.
