Remember Jason Tarver? He was the Raiders’ first defensive coordinator of the post-Al Davis/Reggie McKenzie era in Oakland. He was on the staff led by head coach Dennis Allen when the Raiders’ job was not very enticing because everyone and their brother knew McKenzie was blowing up the team.
Tarver spent three seasons on staff with the Raiders, in-between stints as a defensive assistant/LB coach with the 49ers and one season at Stanford.
The past couple years he’s been the Defensive Coordinator at Vanderbilt. And now, according to a report by Cleveland.com Tarver is back in the NFL as the linebackers coach for the Browns under new Defensive Coordinator Joe Woods.
Woods may also be a familiar name for Raiders fans. He and Tarver were on the same staff in Oakland in 2014 when Woods was the team’s Defensive Backs coach and Tarver was DC. Now, Woods is the DC and Tarver is the position coach.
Woods was just announced as the Defensive Coordinator under new head coach Kevin Stefanski so he has just begun putting together his defensive staff. Also on staff will be Chris Kiffin, brother of former Raiders head coach Lane Kiffin. Chris Kiffin spent last season with Woods on the 49ers staff.
While the defensive staff is coming together, the offensive staff is nearly complete. Among them is offensive line coach Bill Callahan who was the offensive coordinator under Jon Gruden from 1998-2001 and then took over as head coach in 2002, leading the Raiders to the Super Bowl where he would face Gruden, then with the Buccaneers and lose.
Callahan most recently took over as interim head coach in Washington after Jon’s brother Jay Gruden was fired. The NFL is a weird, nepotistic fraternity isn’t it?
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