Report: Saints disputing whether Ryan Nielsen’s contract allows him to leave

Posted by Charean Williams on January 18, 2021, 7:46 PM EST
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Saints defensive line coach Ryan Nielsen wants to join Ed Orgeron’s staff at LSU, and a deal seems (or seemed?) imminent.

LSU coach Ed Orgeron even went on WWL Radio on Monday afternoon and said of Nielsen, via Julie Boudwin of Rivals: “We are in the process. Ryan is a prime candidate for us. Love Ryan. . . . We in the process of figuring out who we’re going to hire, and I think we’re very close.”

Jane Slater of NFL Media, who reported the original news that Nielsen was leaving the Saints to become LSU’s defensive coordinator, now reports that the Saints aren’t letting Nielsen go easily.

“Apparently there is a dispute on whether the language of Nielsen’s contract will support the move to the college ranks,” Slater writes. “The Saints are currently NOT signing off on this.”

So Nielsen and LSU will have to work out contract issues with the Saints before he can leave the NFL team.

Nielsen just finished his fourth season on the Saints staff. It was his first job in the NFL after 15 years at the collegiate level.

Either way, the Saints will have turnover on their staff with assistant head coach/tight ends coach Dan Campbell expected to become the head coach of the Lions. He could take defensive backs coach Aaron Glenn with him as his new defensive coordinator and/or other Saints’ assistant coaches also could leave for Detroit.

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7 responses to “Report: Saints disputing whether Ryan Nielsen’s contract allows him to leave”

  2. Coaches and players move on. The Saints will be fine. They have a top flight coach and GM and will replace the departed with compotent individuals.

  3. They’ll be ok, still a lot of talented players. And even though Drew may retire, he isn’t the same as he was 3-5 years ago, Hill or Winston will lead the offense well. They won’t be as consistent as Drew, who is, and likely won’t be a 12/13 win team but their offense will travel into the postseason better than it has in last couple of years under Brees.

  5. I think you both are SEVERELY underestimating how bad the Saints cap situation is, how bad their draft capital is, and how many players they’ll need to subtract (without adding anything) from their current roster – which as we all know, isn’t good enough to win the SB as currently constructed. It’s going to be a long turnaround.

  6. So they plan on making him stay, when he obviously wants to leave. Yeah, that will work out fantastic.

  7. “The Saints will be fine. They have a top flight coach and GM and will replace the departed with compotent individuals.”

    Compotent looks like a combo of competent and impotent. Wonder which it will be? Yes a top flight GM, except for a number of years of terrible salary cap issues trying to get Brees another ring. They’ll be good, but without Brees, they won’t be nearly the team they were. You don’t lose a hall of fame player and just “be fine.”

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