Meet Your New Defensive Line Coach: Bill Johnson

by Dave Cariello on Jan 11, 2009 8:00 AM CST

That's a huge Johnson. (AP Photo Jack Dempsey)

The Saints made the second move in their effort to vastly improve their defense this off-season when they hired defensive line coach Bill Johnson yesterday, replacing newly departed Ed Orgeron.

I agree with the sentiment that has been expressed here on CSC already that the hiring of Bill Johnson as defensive line coach before the hiring of a defensive coordinator seems unusual or silly. One would assume the ideal situation would be to choose a defensive coordinator and allow him to at least have input on the assistants he wants around him.

But the seeming high demand for Johnson may have put the Saints in a must-sign situation if they really felt strongly about him. Johnson just finished interviewing with the Packers, the Saints new coach-recruiting rival, and had another interview lined up already with the Seahawks following the Saints. I admit that this stands in stark contrast to my pleas for patience yesterday regarding Gregg Williams as defensive coordinator but I think it's necessary to differentiate the importance of the two positions. Remember also that the new defensive coordinator will already be left with quite a few other assistants that remain from Gibbs' reign. He may not like quite a lot of the defensive coaching personnel he will inherit but cleaning house and appointing a new team of coaches just ain't happening. Waiting to hire a new defensive coordinator and allowing him to choose his own line coach would have been a mere luxury.

I couldn't dig up too much dirt on Johnson. Be sure to read the introduction article on the New Orleans Saints official website. I also grabbed a list of Johnson's coaching resume found in the Bronco's media guide. Here's the rundown.

JOHNSON’S
COACHING EXPERIENCE
8 NFL Season's Completed

Denver Broncos
Defensive Line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2007-08

Atlanta Falcons
Defensive Line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2001-06

University of Arkansas
Defensive Line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2000

Texas A&M University
Defensive Line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1992-99

University of Arkansas
Defensive Line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1990-91

Louisiana Tech University
Defensive Line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1988-89

University of Miami
Graduate Assistant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1987

McNeese State University
Outside Linebackers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1986
Defensive Line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1985

Northwestern State University
Defensive Ends/Linebackers . . . . . . . . . . . .1982-84
Graduate Assistant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1980-81

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Comments

A Louisiana boy

No wonder he signed with the Saints so quickly.

Get Sean McDermott!

by MtnExile on Jan 11, 2009 8:51 AM CST reply actions

What we're all thinking:

I hope he can get more production from our guys than he did from the Broncos D-line.

I had heard before that the Broncos were somewhat undersized on their defense, so maybe that led to their dismal performance. I don’t know off hand what their sack numbers were like, bit it sure seemed easy to run on them. I too don’t quite understand why you hire him before a DC, but you’re probably right in that they wanted to get him before any other team did. If WIlliams becomes “the guy,” M-E is probably right that they discussed Johnson with him during the interview and are confident he’d be happy with him on his staff. Johnson definitely has a lot of experience at coaching D-lines, so we could probably have done much worse. So far, I feel pretty good about him. This is one of those wait and see things as we can’t possibly know if this was a good decision until preseason play begins. One thing is for sure—he has to better than Orgeron.

Go Saints!!!!

by David "Satch" Kelly on Jan 11, 2009 11:16 AM CST reply actions

Some sack stats

i looked up the sack numbers put up by teams this guy was working for. I’ll list them and how they ranked that year in the league. I got all these stats from nfl.com.

ATL ‘01: 37 sacks, 19th
ATL’02: 47 sacks, tied 4th
ATL’03: 36 sacks, 13th
ATL’04:48 sacks,1st
ATL’05:37 sacks, 14th
ATL’06:37 sacks, 14th
DEN’07:33 sacks, 16th
DEN’08:26 sacks,26th

So there are some numbers. Having a hard time digging up more on this guy but i’ll keep at it. Looks like he had 2 great years in atlanta and the rest were pretty so-so. We have some serious talent on the d line though so maybe this team is like heaven to this guy. I guess we’ll see eh?

by fruly on Jan 11, 2009 1:55 PM CST reply actions