Nope. Not Lovie's. The new guy's scheme.Is he a poormans replacement for Lovie Smith's defense, will it incorporate some of the things that were missing, or, is it a huge upgrade altogether?With a career record of 67-50, at least we know he has experiance and can win. Sporting news had him as the coach of the year three different times in 08, 10, and 12.In seven years as the falcons HC, mike only had two losing seasons, and only one of those was worse statistically than Lovie's last season. One could argue that tampa wouldve loved to have had that record instead of what they did.When the ravens won the superbowl in 2000, he was the DLine coach/assistant on that team.From 03-07, he helped take a jags team to two playoff appearances. One in 05, and the other in 07.His college career was somewhat average imo, coaching for San Diego state, morehead state, and finally Tennessee tech. In 98 he had his big nfl break, coaching the ravens.In 2002, he was promoted to linebackers' coach for head coach Brian Billick, tutoring such future standouts as Ray Lewis, Peter Boulware, Jamie Sharper and Adalius Thomas.MMQB quote:"Shoddy defensive play is what cost Mike Smith and his staff their jobs last year, opening the door for the 44-year-old Quinn. Smith and his defensive coordinator, Mike Nolan, used a litany of different defensive concepts; no one knew what to expect of their group from week to week. Well, actually, there was one thing to expect: no pass rush. This was the motivation for Nolan’s frequent, at times maybe even desperate, schematic gyrations. It didn’t help that the Falcons secondary was hit by injuries and average to begin with, or that their linebacking corps was subpar and inexperienced.Smith runs a vanilla 4-3 stack. Predictable blitz schemes. Deploys a 'bend don't break' defense. Will clog the interior gaps, but will be very exposed on stretch or sweeps, and cutbacks. Plays a lot of soft zone with two high safeties. Struggles defending athletic TEs and slot receivers as he normally leaves them single covered the entire game. Fails at making proper adjustments after halftime or throughout the game. Wth that said, It will be interesting to see what he does with Lavonte and Kwon as they'd be the most athletic LBs he's had since his Jax days. McCoy could potentially have a Geno Atkins type impact in '16 Some falcons fans are saying it was fine there, until Nolan came around. Also, two of his best scouts left for other teams, as drafting was beginning to be a problem for them as well. So, obviously, there are excuses.What do you think of the hire, and what are the expectations supposed to be?
