National Football League

Former Raiders Defensive Coordinator Jason Tarver Set To Interview With Redskins

Updated Mar. 4, 2020 3:28 p.m. ET

Fansided, Jacob Camenker/FanSided via Riggo's Rag

According to reports, the Washington Redskins are interviewing another candidate for the defensive coordinator position. This time, it is former Oakland Raiders defensive coordinator Jason Tarver.

It appears that the Washington Redskins defensive coordinator search is really starting to heat up this week. After it was announced that Rob Ryan would be interviewing with the team, reports surfaced that Jason Tarver would also interview for the job, per Master Testafion of the Washington Post. Tarver was the defensive coordinator for the Oakland Raiders from 2012 to 2014 and does not appear to be a particularly strong candidate.

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Tarver has been in the NFL since 2001, though he had a brief stint as the Stanford defensive coordinator back in 2011. He has spent most of his time with the San Francisco 49ers organization, working as various positional coaches. Notably, he had a stint as the team’s outside linebackers from 2005 to 2010, and he worked with current Redskins general manager Scot McCloughan during that time. That connection could be what ultimately landed Tarver the interview.

Still, Tarver’s stint as a coordinator with the Raiders left a lot to be desired. The team was below average in terms of yards allowed when he held the job, but their scoring defense was atrocious. They never finished higher that 28th in the league in points allowed, and in Tarver’s final season they were the worst scoring defense in the league. Given the lack of overall talent on the Redskins defense, one could expect that Tarver would have some serious trouble getting their defense to improve.

If I had to guess, I would say that this interview is just McCloughan doing an old employee a favor. The Redskins really should not even consider Tarver for the job, solely because of his track record coupled with the team’s lack of talent. Of the known interviewees, Tarver is likely the worst fit for the Redskins. He could possibly land another defensive coordinator job in the future, he is only 42, but he needs to make sure that he does not take a job that would set him up to fail. This one very well could. For that reason, I would not expect the two parties to express much interest beyond the first interview.