Rob Ryan was hired as defensive coordinator in New Orleans to help fix a run defense that may have been the worst in the NFL last season, if not history.
Under Steve Spagnuolo, the Saints easily had the league’s worst run defense. They allowed a league-high 147.6 rushing yards per game and allowed ball carriers to gain nearly 5.2 yards per carry, the highest total allowed by any NFL defense since 2006.
Ryan told the New Orleans Times-Picayune, that the Saint’s scheme “wasn’t very sound last season, but that has definitely been fixed.”
“Honestly, I don’t think the scheme was very sound in the running game,” Ryan said in the interview, which aired over the weekend. “That’s not a fault of anybody else. I’ve just been around football my whole life. I know it wasn’t (sound). We’re going to fix it. That’s definitely been fixed.”
Ryan said that the switch to a 3-4 scheme will help. I believe the addition of stud rookie safety Kenny Vaccaro, nose tackle John Jenkins and free-agent defensive end Kenyon Coleman should help as well.
Ryan called Kenyon Coleman “the best run defender in football as a 3-4 end.”
It will definitely be interesting to see how Ryan’s defense in New Orleans pans out. It’s ironic, that Ryan was fired in Dallas because his defense was labeled “unsound” as well.