With Mike McCarthy as the new head coach of  the Dallas Cowboys, there were questions about how much input he would have in putting together his staff because of Jerry Jones.

Those questions were put to bed quickly as one new coach after another came walking into The Star in Frisco. There are former NFL head coaches, guys with a lot of NFL experience and some that have never coached on the NFL level.

We know the names, but I wanted to start putting together pieces to show who the new faces are as coaches.

Starting off, I took a look at new defensive coordinator, Mike Nolan.

Mike Nolan is 61 years old and has been in the NFL pretty much every year since 1987 in various roles from head coach to special teams coach. The past three seasons, he has been the New Orleans Saints linebackers coach.

In Nolan’s time as head coach, he went 18-37 with the San Francisco 49ers.

He was last a defensive coordinator in Atlanta from 2012-2014. One thing that stands out about those defenses is that they took the ball away quite a bit but also gave up a bunch of yards. They never ranked higher than 24th in total yards given up, which tells me he is okay with his guys taking risks in order to get the football.

Mike Nolan during his first media session in Dallas: “The No. 1 thing in winning football games is getting the ball for your offense. As a defense, that’s what we’ll strive to do all the time.”

Takeaways for Nolan’s defense in Atlanta.

2012- 31

2013 – 21

2014 – 28

Points per game given up in Atlanta from 2012-2014

2012 – 18.7

2013 – 27.7

2014 – 26.1