Linebackers Coach Jason Tarver (11.21.25)
Yesterday, Jim Schwartz had some pretty high praise for Carson (Schwesinger), saying that, just his command of the field, some that, it even took somebody like Ray Lewis, who he worked with early in his career, three years to develop. What can you say about him being compared already to a Hall of Famer, and what do you notice about his play through 10 games?
“First, what I think was great about Carson, and he answered Nathan (Zegura) and our radio crew with – they asked him what his favorite play he made, and he said the next one – and that typifies how he sees the world. He has a unique ability to focus in the moment, and make quick decisions, and then put it away and go to the next play. That’s one of the hardest things to teach. I was fortunate enough as a young coach to work with Takeo Spikes and Patrick Willis and NaVorro Bowman. And to get what Takeo Spikes taught us was, when he was young, going through, because it’s exciting – there’s all kinds of stuff going on in the field, as you know. And what he would say to himself is, ‘Next play’s my best play. ‘Next play is my best play.’ And that was one of the things I shared with Carson, and I share with a lot of young linebackers. But he has a great mental attitude to be able to do that. So, it’s special how he can go to the next play, and focus, and forget about it and go. Usually after he gets the guy on the ground, which is special that he’s able to do that as well.”
Jason (Tarver), I don’t know that I’ve ever seen a defender, at least a rookie defender, come in and understand spatial awareness the way that Carson does. And I remember we used to talk about it, even with JOK (Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah), he had to figure out where he needed to be. But Carson skipped over all that, didn’t he? I mean, he knows that instinctively, doesn’t he?
“I think it’s always nature and nurture. Carson played a whole bunch of positions, bunch of different sports, with all his brothers and sisters growing up, playing a bunch of different positions. And then how he had to earn his way onto the field, I think helped him immensely in the space in the field. And yes, we talked about Jeremiah a lot. Jeremiah is amazing at how well he can feel things; he just didn’t have as much experience of putting it into that box and applying it quite as quick. But of course, once Jeremiah saw it, there’s not many humans that can get as fast as he can. So, all of us have our strengths and weaknesses, but, yeah, I think he takes in space and feel and time, and it’s naturally who he is, how he sees the world as a person, but also his experience. And then his ability to, like we said, ‘Next play is the best play.’ Lock on to one thing and use it.”
Where do you think that comes from, the ability to get to the next play? Because you talk about that every time we talk to you. Coach and coach it. So why is he. In order to do that quick?
“Like we said, he’s so smart that he can put it away, and just how he’s naturally wired like that. He makes a play, and you’ll see him – he’ll get a quick celebration, grab the back from Miami (Dolphins), throw him down. Everybody hits him on the helmet, runs back to the huddle, and he’s already looking for Jim to get the next call. It’s really unique. And he learns very quickly – both when you tell him something, when you show him something, and then his study comes into play. He’s advanced at how much he studies, what he studies, and he hits a point where he has enough so that he doesn’t overthink it. That’s advanced as well, too. So, it comes from the whole process.”
Are you amazed that he didn’t start earlier at UCLA? When you see what he’s doing now? Somebody didn’t recognize that and get him on the field faster?
“Well, I don’t know. I wasn’t there, so I don’t know. I know his weight progression, I knew he grew – he was still growing Senior year into UCLA. And I think at that time with the year when you were recruited, the athletes in 2020, because of the situation, because of what was going on, there’s a bunch of good players in that mix that not as many coaches would go out to see them. There are stories like this out of that class, just because of what was happening in the world. Like, we may not have been able to find them all. But what’s cool is these young men are getting a chance and showing who they are. Because really, it’s all about, and we talk about it all the time, and you guys do a good job asking me all the time. This business is next man up, no matter what. You don’t know when it’s going to happen. So, for Carson to be able to get into what he did last year and start making plays right away and then get on everybody’s radar. Then to come in here, stay focused, build his body, come back from what he came back from after the bye week and get in there and make all those tackles. I mean, it’s very impressive, but it’s taking advantage of the opportunity. I’m proud of him for that.”
How about NFL defensive rookie of the Year for him? What are your thoughts on that?
“I think mine are the same as him. We’re going to stay in our, what we do each play each day, how we communicate with our teammates, how we get 11 of us to go to the ball. And we did a pretty good job of it last week as a defense. We’ve got to get guys on the ground faster in the run game. You can’t run without your legs, we got to get legs out of the ground. With this young back who’s really good, his legs run. And so we got so many things to work on, that if we do that, that stuff falls at the end. And this is a good challenge. They didn’t run the ball as much as they probably wanted to last week. A lot of the young men on our defense are going close to home, and we need to play really well this week to go 1-0, and that’s our ultimate goal. We haven’t done that on the road for while, and we need to focus on that.”
Other than ‘The next one,’ what has been your favorite Carson play this year?
“Mine? Yeah, mine is the next one. You know that.”
Other than that?
“There’s a lot. I’ll answer that one at the end of the year. Let’s see where we can go with that.”
What about (Ashton) Jeanty? What. What are you seeing from Jeanty?
“He runs hard. He’s strong, he’s trained his body to be really strong, and he’s good. He spins and he gets positive yards. I don’t think his yards per carry represent who this back is. He’s a good player.”
I feel like Devin (Bush) was really good last year, but what has changed or clicked more for him this season?
“Thanks for asking about Devin – A smile comes to my face. I’m really proud of Devin, how he brings energy to us every day to the field. He’s gotten better at just, every time he takes the field, bringing his energy. Devin has great positive energy, and he loves football. He’s out pre-practice, playing catch with Carson every day, and they’re like two little kids playing catch, trying to catch the ball at all different angles. And you know what? That helped us, so hopefully that continues to help us. But love his energy, and he is good working with Carson, and the year and the defense. He’s way better on his alignments, and then his eyes are more correct because his alignments are correct. And so, when Devin stays in that process, he’s really good, because he’s fast, he’s low target tackling well. Kind of what we were just talking about, because you got to get legs out of the ground. There’s no other way to get people on the ground anymore. They all got stiff arms, they’re all quick, they’re all fast, they can all cut back. In the NFL, it’s a cut back league because everybody can run. That’s a Joe Woods quote, but I love that one because it’s true, and you got to prevent cutbacks. So, Devin’s done a good job of – we call it tracking. He’s done a good job of tracking. So, I can’t say enough about what he’s doing within the scheme of the defense, and then how willing he is to play with contact.”
With both him and Carson, there’s a bunch of plays where even if it seems like they’re not going to catch a guy, they’re chasing them. The (Mark) Andrews play, Carson running without his helmet on, that screenplay. And I remember Devin in New Orleans (Saints) last year. What does that say about those guys?
“That’s who we want to be. Our number one thing of our linebacker mantra is run. It’s run, shed, tackle the guy with the ball. You got to run, it’s the number one thing. They don’t like when they read their grade sheet and it says loaf, that’s the worst thing that we could have in that room. We have very few, we want zero, we have very few. But that is what we pride ourselves on, and that’s what the room and the defense has done a good job of pointing out to each other. Like, ‘is that full speed?’ And the more times that you say, ‘yes, it was’, the better you are. So, we emphasize that in every phase of everything we do.”
I’m sure there’s going to be different looks that you give when it comes to Brock Bowers and different guys covering, things like that. But what role does the linebacker room play in that on Sunday, with a guy who obviously is as talented as he is?
“As Coach Schwartz says, the linebackers and the safeties in our defense – they’re the nerve center. So, it’s our job to get everything lined up. They do a great job of moving him or putting him in positions to use his change of direction to build in his great hands to make plays. So, there’s times where any of us could be around or near him, and we got to know the leverages, where he is and work. So, it’s going to be a team effort to play him. And they do a very good job of how they use him. They’re different when he plays in games, as you’ve seen from stats and everything. As you look through, he’s a good player. So, it’s going to take us all. And then he’s really good when he gets ball in his hands. When we were talking about getting guys to the ground, we got to make sure we get as many humans to the ball because he’s good after the catch.”
When you see Myles (Garrett) on a tear that he is, just strictly from a sack perspective, but I know he’s playing great. How impressed are you? Have you ever seen anybody put this string together like he is?
“I got a big smile. I usually only get that big smile for – no, I get a big smile for anybody on defense. It’s very impressive what Myles is doing. He’s really locked. We were talking a lot about Carson, how he can lock his brain into doing things. Myles has done a very good job of getting his body and his mind ready to just keep going this year. And he’s been relentless. A lot of the sacks are effort, running people down sacks. He may not know this, but anytime it’s an effort sack, I go over and make sure I tell him a little extra. So, we all want to be great for Myles, we want to be great with Myles, we want to play great defense around and with him and everything. We just have that much respect for him and whatever other ten are on the field. It’s our job to go, and if he’s getting doubled, that means somebody else isn’t. And so, we got to make a play, got to make a play for him and with him.”
Grant (Delpit) said yesterday he’d been trying to get Carson to come up with a signature celebration after he make big plays. Do you have any ideas for him? Have you helped him out with that at all?
“We just tell him to have a plan, and if you tell Carson to have a plan, he does. So, I don’t think it’ll be. I love Grant’s signature celebration by the way, but he’s going to make sure it’s quick so he can get back into the next play. That’s just how he’s wired. So, hopefully everybody runs over and sees it when he does it really quick. Go Browns.”
# # #
***Visit the Browns Media Center for materials provided by the Browns communications department, including media schedules, press releases, quotes, photos, media guides, rosters, depth charts and more.***