Tag: NaVorro Bowman

Former Penn State star NaVorro Bowman reuniting with Jim Harbaugh

NaVorro Bowman joining Jim Harbaugh in Los Angeles with a new NFL job.

After winning a national championship last month, Jim Harbaugh left Michigan for a chance to return to the NFL as the head coach of the Los Angeles Chargers. Harbaugh has been busy assembling his coaching staff with the NFL franchise with some members from his Michigan staff, and he is now reuniting with one of his former players from his last run in the NFL. And this one has a Penn State connection.

Former defensive standout [autotag]NaVorro Bowman[/autotag] will be joining Harbaugh in Los Angeles as a linebackers coach. Adam Schefter of ESPN was the first to report the news of the staff update for the Chargers.

Bowman previously played for Harbaugh when Harbaugh was the head coach of the San Francisco 49ers. Bowman spent the first eight seasons of his NFL career with the 49ers, three of which led to Pro Bowl appearances and four ending with All-Pro honors.

Bowman ended his college career by receiving first-team All-Big Ten honors for the 2009 season with Penn State. He opted to declare for the NFL draft in 2010 and was a third-round draft pick of the 49ers. Bowman retired from the NFL in June 2019.

Bowman joined the Maryland football staff as a defensive analyst last season. It was his first staff or coaching job since wrapping up his football playing career.

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Chargers hire former Raiders, 49ers LB Navorro Bowman as LB coach

Former Raiders, 49ers Navorro Bowman becomes the latest recent NFL LB to get a coaching job

The final ten games of Navorro Bowman’s career as a player was spent with the Raiders. Now his first NFL linebackers coach job will be spent with the Raiders’ rival chargers, joining his former head coach Jim Harbaugh in Los Angeles.

Bowman joins a group of former NFL linebackers to get promotions this offseason, including Raiders head coach Antonio Pierce, Patriots head coach Jerod Mayo and LB coach Dont’a Hightower, and Ravens defensive coordinator Zach Orr.

Last offseason it was Demeco Ryans who took over as head coach in Houston and led the Texans to their best record in four years. That success no doubt paved the way for some of the other jobs given to former NFL linebackers.

Report: Chargers to hire NaVorro Bowman as linebackers coach

The Chargers are expected to reach a deal with the former All-Pro linebacker.

Jim Harbaugh has already brought back Greg Roman from his San Francisco days. Reportedly, he won’t be the last name to return from the 2010s 49ers.

The Chargers are expected to reach a deal with former All-Pro linebacker NaVorro Bowman to become their linebackers coach.

Bowman was an All-Pro linebacker in each one of his healthy Niners seasons under Harbaugh. In 2014, he missed the regular season with a torn ACL and MCL. Bowman would finish his playing career in 2017.

While Bowman doesn’t have formal coaching experience, he has spent the last three seasons as a defensive analyst for Maryland football. A step up to the pros would be an adjustment, but he obviously knows a thing or two about operating the middle of the field at the pro level. Especially while working with his former coach.

Bowman would be an inspired hire for a linebacker group in desperate need of retooling outside Daiyan Henley. Given their contractual situations, it seems unlikely that Kenneth Murray or Eric Kendricks will be back next season.

Bowman recently saw his longtime 49ers’ running mate Patrick Willis receive induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Now alongside Harbaugh once again, Bowman may not be done making an impact on the pro game after retiring four years ago.

Former Penn State defensive star NaVorro Bowman joins rival Big Ten football staff

Former Penn State star NaVorro Bowman joins Big Ten football staff

One of the best Penn State defensive players of the past couple of decades is making a return to the Big Ten, but it will be with one of Penn State’s Big Ten East rivals. Bowman has been hired by Maryland to be a defensive analyst for head coach Mike Locksley.

This is the first role on a football staff for Bowman since retiring from the NFL in 2019. He should bring an astute defensive eye to the Maryland football staff as the Terrapins look for any way to improve its defense, which ranked ninth in the Big Ten in total defense a season ago by giving up an average of 357.1 yards per game. Maryland only yielded 23.2 points per game last season but the Terps gave up at least 30 points against all three ranked teams it faced (Michigan, Ohio State, and Penn State), and it allowed 31 points to Big Ten West champion Purdue.

Bowman retired from the NFL in 2019 to wrap up a career that spanned eight seasons with three Pro Bowl honors and four All-Pro honors. He also won the professional Butkus Award, the first Penn State player to win the professional Butkus Award to go with the school’s two all-time college Butkus Awards (LaVar Arrington and Paul Posluszny).

Bowman is a Maryland native, so joining the Terps is a bit of a homecoming moment for the former Nittany Lion, and it could help lead to an eventual coaching career down the line if that is something he is looking to get into.

Penn State has former Maryland quarterback Danny O’Brien on its football staff as an offensive analyst. Former Nittany Lions Calvin Lowry and Dan Connor are among those on the staff as an analyst as well.

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Former 49ers LB NaVorro Bowman hired as defensive analyst for University of Maryland football

Former 49ers LB NaVorro Bowman is joining the coaching staff at the University of Maryland.

Former 49ers linebacker NaVorro Bowman is making his way into the coaching world. The Maryland native is joining the University of Maryland football team as a defensive analyst.

Bowman, 34, retired from the NFL in 2019. The 2010 third-round pick of the 49ers spent his first seven-plus seasons in San Francisco before making his way to the Raiders part of the way through the 2017 campaign.

He finished his career with four First-Team All-Pro nods and three Pro Bowl trips.

Bowman spent his college years at Penn State, but prior to that starred at Suitland High School in Maryland where he eventually won the state’s Defensive Player of the Year award and earned an All-State spot after his junior season.

He’ll now be tasked with helping elevate a Maryland defense that finished 43rd in the FBS in total defense last year and tied for 42nd in points allowed last season. They finished the year 8-5 overall and capped the 2022 campaign with a 16-12 win over NC State in the Duke’s Mayo Bowl.

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Micah Parsons wins professional Butkus Award

Micah Parsons finally joins some notable former Penn State linebackers in the Butkus Award club

Micah Parsons has only played one season in the NFL, but he may already be in need of getting a new shelf for some awards. On Tuesday, Parsons was named the NFL’s Butkus Award winner as the league’s best linebacker for the 2021 season.

Parsons is the second player from Penn State to win the NFL version of the Butkus Award. He joins NaVorro Bowman, who took home the award in 2013 with the San Francisco 49ers. Other past professional Butkus Award winners have included TJ Watt of the Pittsburgh Steelers, Von Miller, and DeMarcus Ware. Parsons is the second Cowboys player to win the Butkus Award, with Ware doing so twice in 2008 and again in 2011.

Penn State has a good history with the Butkus Award, of course. Although Parsons never won the award while in college, Paul Posluszny (2005) and LaVar Arrington (1999) each won the award in college.

This year’s college Butkus Award winner was Georgia’s Nakobe Dean, who also won the high school Butkus Award in 2018.

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