Report: Colts Hiring Jets’ Nate Ollie as New Defensive Line Coach

According to Pro Football Network’s Aaron Wilson, the Indianapolis Colts are hiring former New York Jets assistant defensive line coach Nate Ollie for their currency defensive line coach vacancy.

Ollie just completed his sole season as the Jets assistant defensive line coach, having spent the prior two seasons (2019-20) in the same coaching capacity with the Philadelphia Eagles.

He also served as Eastern Kentucky’s defensive line coach in 2018. Among his other prior coaching stops, Ollie was the University of Tennessee’s interim defensive line coach (2017) and a graduate assistant at Ball State University (2015).

In fact, Ollie also played football collegiately at local Ball State, where he was a 3x All-Mid American Conference selection for the Cardinals—as well as a team captain (2013-14) and defensive MVP (2013-14) respectively.

With the Jets, Ollie got to work with the 3rd overall pick of the 2019 NFL Draft, Quinnen Williams, and with the Colts, he’ll have a similar top-level talent anchoring the middle of his defensive line regarding 2x NFL All-Pro defensive tackle DeForest Buckner.

That being said, where departed defensive line coach Brian Baker fell short is the development of the Colts’ defensive ends in the pass rushing department.

The Colts simply haven’t developed enough consistent outside pass pressure in recent seasons—despite investing early draft picks in the position.

Therefore, Ollie will be tasked with trying to untap the talent, as well as furthering the continued development of 2021 top draft picks such as Kwity Paye and Dayo Odeyingbo, who are pivotal building blocks to the success of the Colts’ pass rush going forward.

It’s not a coincidence either that Ollie just completed a season under Jets defensive minded head coach Robert Saleh, who previously called the defensive shots for the San Francisco 49ers—and deploys a similar defensive scheme to new Colts defensive coordinator Gus Bradley:

“[Y]ou know in San Francisco because it’s a similar scheme now,” said Bradley in his introductory press conference with the Colts regarding DeForest Buckner’s expected transition. “Similar scheme. San Francisco, there’s a lot of (similarities), Robert Saleh, who was the defensive coordinator there, was a quality control coach for us in Seattle.”

Bradley clearly got a natural fit in a defensive line coach who can teach his scheme in Ollie—who comes from the Saleh coaching tree, which is also intertwined with Bradley’s already.