Linebackers Coach Jason Tarver (10.17.25)
What differences do you notice out of Devin (Bush) this year? Because it seems like he’s really playing; what you would hope you’d get out of him when you signed him.
“Devin’s just gotten better and better and better in knowing the system and getting his alignments and his eyes right in this system has been really beneficial. So just since he’s got here until now, he’s good at being ahead of motions and ahead of plays and being in the right spot and you’re seeing his speed come to life, but he’s been real physical, he’s really good. He’s doing a nice job communicating with everybody else, excited for what he’s doing, and we’re going to need him. We’re going to need him this week; this team has some speed.”
I was about to ask about that. When you look at the way that the (Miami) Dolphins use (De’Von) Achane as a receiver, and when you look at your position room, like who really stands out to you in the coverage aspect at the linebacker position?
“Well, they as an offense, blur the lines. They use all their humans to run all their routes, and that’s what they do. They run the same plays, but you don’t know where people are going to be. So, for us, it becomes a rules game. So our matchups, we got to know how each one, regardless of position, how they run their routes and what they do or in their run plays, you know what their aiming points are, where are their keys, and we’re going to have our eyes right in our alignments and then it’s knowing where our help is. So that’s what we’ve been working on all week because the matchups are going to be what they are. There’s going to be times that any of our players can be on any of their players. And so, we got to use our help and be under control and get our eyes in the right spots to know when we’re passing things off or locking things or what kind of zone we’re in.”
Jason, it looked like maybe a couple times on Sunday last week that Aaron Rodgers, when he caught Carson (Schwesinger) maybe once or twice and on the one play it looked like maybe he undercut something. Like, how much of a learning experience is that when it’s a quarterback that reads things as well as Aaron does and gets the ball out so quickly for a rookie linebacker who’s in the middle of the defense?
“Well, like we say, there’s only one ball on the field. So we got him in, and he does a really good job of knowing where that is and going. There’s one play where somebody else needed to lock something, and Carson tried to fix it, there’s one of those. And there’s some times where in games like that where there’s going to be something that the ball comes out really fast and you got to find a way to get it in the ground. I will say this, the last drive where we got a three and out where Carson made the two tackles, on the flip play where they flipped it behind the line of scrimmage, and then that was a pick route. They were trying to pick him, and he knew that, and he dropped his weight because you’re allowed one yard from the line of scrimmage to pick. He knew the pick zone. He moved back; he dropped his hips down and then went wrapped the back up. Those aren’t good plays. Those are great plays. So, if you get him, he learns really quickly. Keep it up Cars.”
What goes into the – I know it was Jerome (Baker) a lot early because Mohamoud (Diabate) was coming back. Right now, they’re kind of feels like they’re both splitting time. So, like how do you figure out who’s going to play what numbers?
“Well both…we feel like right now our rotation is all four of the linebackers, and we really like Easton (Mascarenas-Arnold) as he continues to learn of the five guys that are active right now on the roster. We really like Easton as well. Right now, Mohamoud and Jerome are pretty solid pros that are both doing a good job. We talked a little bit about aligning wider to see, like both with Dev (Devin Bush) and against this team, and both of them are continuing to improve on that. So, it depends somewhat on what the offense does, what personnel groups for us, what Coach (Jim) Schwartz picks for the game. But they’re all going to play and those two right now are playing sometimes the same spot and sometimes they’re all in together. So, we’re just going to continue to roll them because we like what all of them do.”
Myles (Garrett) expressed some frustration with, you know, how the Browns continue to lose the same way every single week after that (Pittsburgh) Steelers game. So just wondering, you guys have a basically championship-caliber defense. How do you think the guys are handling it? What do you think the mindset is of the defenders in terms of just how this is going this year?
“Well, I think this – I think the one thing that we can do is, we’re not promised anything. All we get is one game a week and 60-plus minutes and we don’t control what falls out of the sky, which might be fun this week, and we don’t control any of that. All we can control is when that ball is put down, wherever it’s put down – 20-yard line, 50-yard line, doesn’t matter, that’s all you can control as a defense. Defenses have two jobs. Players hear this from me all the time, at the start of the offseason program. We got two jobs. And coaches have two jobs – helping players get better to make plays and get the ball back to the offense, that’s it. And that’s all we can think about. So, every day when we get started, that’s how we start. We start with – put the ball down, and then it’s our job to stop you. And we can’t think past that. And we have to do better as a defense, as all of us in having that mindset right there. I have to. I’m lecturing myself as I talk to you to get our minds right, to no matter what happens. And you’ve heard this from me before. The next play is my best play. As a coach, my job is to help anything that happens. We talked about Carson. Anything that happens, it’s our job to find it, fix it together and do it better the next time, which we’ve been able to do at times. We’re got to do it more consistently.”
Jason, the forecast looks a little unpredictable for Sunday, and 30 mile an hour winds, chance of rain. I guess just looking at it and the potential for a lot of stuff to happen on the ground, like what’s the mindset for you guys to get a chance to maybe muck some things up there.
“I think weather forecasting and since I’ve been here, which I’ve been fortunate to be for a while now, is a really hard job here. And I think, you know, whatever happens, we got to be ready for it. You know, and what I mean by being ready for it, is just what I talked about. Hey, it may bounce funnier. Well, anytime it’s on the ground, we got to scoop that ball up. Those little things come huge when you get weather games.”
Jason, I know you talked a lot about Carson’s ability as the green dot and just his intelligence. But just through these first six games, how have you just seen him grow in that him facing divisional opponents and a lot of different things, just through this first part of the season.
“He’s really good at if we give him, when we give him, specific coaching points or things that happen, making sure he’s unique, that he can focus on – set the play, make all the calls and still focus on the technique. One of the things that he’s gotten, I’ll give you an example, one of the things he’s gotten better at is just his extension of getting his eyes on the correct side of blockers and getting away from blockers quicker because he’s so good and likes contact, and he’s so strong and he does everything you want that sometimes he will let people get closer to him. You don’t have to do that every down, Carson. And he’s gotten better and better. That’s an example. It’s because he can focus on technique things and still making calls and playing within the framework of the defense.”
You’ve talked a couple times about stuff he’s learning, the stuff he’s picking up on so quickly. Is he doing it faster than maybe you’ve seen from, you know, other players?
“The unique ability, like Phil Jackson, when he would whistle, what does that mean in his famous phrase, stay in the moment, right? His ability to stay in the moment is unique. And when you have the ability to stay in the moment, you have to learn it as coaches and players, everybody. When you have that, you can take information and make those little changes quickly. He has that. So, he is really…he goes the next play quickly. He’s very conscious of everything that goes on around him quickly. And when you have that, you can make adjustments and remember everything that happens to you. And that’s really unique. And he’s been able to use that to get better every week. So, you want to get – as a coach, you want to get everybody to figure out where their mindset is and how to snap back into it. We talked about Devin. Devin’s way better at, ‘Okay, this happened. I know how to fix it. Here we go.’ Some of that’s experience, some of its coaching. It’s all of us working together, but he’s unique in that he can do that quickly.”
What would a victory do for you guys as a football team on Sunday?
“I think every time we take the field; it’s about going 1-0. And I think that anytime you win…this game is amazing in this league that you’re playing against these elite super athletes and anything can happen. Anytime you win in this league, it’s a result of hard work and we’re ecstatic when we can do that. So, what would it do? It starts that back off and then we got to figure out…when we’re able to go 1-0, then we got to figure out how to do it again.”
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