Tag: Jason Tarver

Browns would be wise to retain LB coach Jason Tarver

As they look to replace their DBs and DL coaches, the Browns would be wise to retain an assistant who actually earned his worth.

The Cleveland Browns are experiencing a good bit of turnover in their defensive coaching staff. After the hiring of Jim Schwartz as the new defensive coordinator last month, two staffers have since departed for other gigs as Jeff Howard has taken the linebackers coaching job with the Los Angeles Chargers and Chris Kiffin is taking over the linebacker coaching job with the Houston Texans. As they look to replace their openings, openings that were more than likely created intentionally as the Browns granted these guys the opportunity to interview elsewhere while under contract, Schwartz would be wise to retain linebackers coach Jason Tarver.

Browns ‘expect two more weeks’ of solid play out of LB Reggie Ragland

The Browns have been impressed by Reggie Ragland

Signed off of the practice squad of the Las Vegas Raiders after the season-ending injury to starting linebacker Sione Takitaki, Reggie Ragland is now seeing significant snaps for the Cleveland Browns. As the Browns have now lost a fifth linebacker in Jordan Kunaszyk, Ragland may be thrust into an even bigger role. And his position coach Jason Tarver thinks he is up to the challenge.

Tarver had this to say about Ragland during his weeks of interaction with the linebacker:

“To his credit, he has an infectious personality. He knows when to focus. He knows when to keep things light… His focus level, his personality and he likes contact, which of course is very important playing linebacker. He uses his hands, and he can really diagnose the box the run game. Played very solid last week, and we expect two more weeks one at a time of that.”

He was the highest-graded Brown according to PFF a week ago, and they will need him to keep that up as they continue to shovel in a variation of linebackers into their starting lineup.

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Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah must focus on ‘building his body to handle 17 weeks’

Jason Tarver has praise for Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah and has tasked him with room for growth.

Second-year linebacker Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah has a bit of time on the sideline for the Cleveland Browns over his career. When he is on the field, and he is on the field the majority of the time, missing three games as a rookie and playing through 11 before hitting Injured Reserve this season, Owusu-Koramoah is a dynamic playmaker defensively.

He has now been tasked by his position coach Jason Tarver to get his body in a position to withstand the grind of a full 17-game season. Speaking to the media today, Tarver praised Owusu-Koramoah, saying “I do like where he went by football progression…” but went on to state “In the offseason this year, it is going to be building his body to handle the 17 weeks.”

The Browns are counting on Owusu-Koramoah, who has lived up to the billing of a second round pick. Can he stay on the field for them, however?

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Browns LB coach Jason Tarver impressed with B.J. Goodson’s coverage skills

Goodson is the most experienced LB on the Browns roster

B.J. Goodson is the greybeard of the Cleveland Browns linebacking corps despite being just 27 years old and registering a modest 160 total tackles over his first four seasons. It’s a sign of the greenhorn status of the LB position in Cleveland.

In his first week of practice with the Browns, Goodson is offering promise that he can be more than just a veteran rudder for the precocious young LB corps. With Mack Wilson sidelined with a knee injury, Goodson has stepped up as the team’s top coverage LB.

Browns LB coach Jason Tarver has been impressed with Goodson’s work in coverage. He talked about it in his Zoom session with reporters prior to Friday’s session in Berea.

After noting that Goodson is in on all the LB packages, Tarver cited an example of his work in coverage.

“B.J. did a great job on one of those packages on an option route in the red zone where our new tight end (Austin Hooper) ran a route where he could either go underneath or go vertical and B.J. stayed in perfect position.

He’s done a great job of working his body through the offseason to where he can do that. I know B.J. was excited about the opportunity here because we want players to feel like they are limitless.”

Goodson was signed as a free agent after nondescript stints with the Giants (2016-2018) and Packers, where he played over 50 percent of the snaps in just three games in 2019. He appears poised for a much more significant role in Joe Woods’ defense in Cleveland in 2020. As Tarver noted, he’s been in on every package so far.

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Jason Tarver officially hired as the Browns new LBs coach

The Cleveland Browns have hired Jason Tarver as the new LBs coach

After weeks of speculation and different reports of different names, the Cleveland Browns finally have themselves a new linebackers coach. Jason Tarver was officially hired to coach the LBs under new head coach Kevin Stefanski.

Tarver’s name had been the most prominent among those connected to the job. He comes to the Browns from Vanderbilt, where he was the Commodores’ defensive coordinator. Tarver spent two years in Nashville after several NFL seasons.

Some of that NFL experience came as the coordinator of the Oakland Raiders defense. Cleveland’s new defensive coordinator Joe Woods worked under him as the DBs coach in 2014. He spent many years in San Francisco on the 49ers staff in various defensive capacities, as well as college stints at Stanford and UCLA.

Tarver’s hiring nearly completes the inaugural Stefanski staff. All the major position groups now have coaches on both sides of the ball. There are still some positional and general assistants to be hired, but the important base of the staff is complete.

There were virulent reports connecting former Ohio State coach Fred Pagac to the Browns LB coach job, but those proved false leads.

 

Browns still have some coaching vacancies to fill

The openings include

Kevin Stefanski has been busy building up his support staff as the new head coach of the Cleveland Browns. With three more assistants officially joining the Browns this week, the coaching roster is nearly complete.

However, there are still a couple of openings left to fill.

On offense, the biggest opening is for the quarterback coach. Both Stefanski and offensive assistant T.C. McCartney have experience as QB coaches in the NFL, but as of today (Feb. 16th) there is no quarterbacks coach on the Browns staff. Expect McCartney to work closely with Baker Mayfield in his vaguely defined role.

Defensively, there are just two coaches under coordinator Joe Woods. The new DL coach is Chris Kiffin, while Jeff Howard will serve as the passing game coordinator and DBs coach.

That leaves openings for assistants under those two, as well as a linebackers coach. A more general defensive assistant like McCartney on the offensive side could be in the works as well.

Reports of Jason Tarver being hired as the LBs coach have been rampant for over a week, but as of yet, the position is still vacant on the team’s website.

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Browns hire Jason Tarver as the new LBs coach

Tarver has NFL experience and was most recently Vanderbilt’s defensive coordinator

The Cleveland Browns have added another experienced coach to the defensive staff. Per multiple reports, the Browns are hiring Jason Tarver as the LBs coach under new defensive coordinator Joe Woods.

Tarver most recently served as the defensive coordinator for Vanderbilt, where he spent two seasons. The 45-year-old has coached linebackers in the NFL for the San Francisco 49ers in two separate stints. He also had three seasons (2012-2014) as the DC of the Oakland Raiders.

Tarver replaces Al Holcomb, who also served with the title of run game coordinator.

No word on the fate of Fred Pagac, who was widely mentioned in reports on Friday to be the new LB coach.