Linebackers Coach Jason Tarver (8.1.25)
Regarding Carson (Schwesinger), how much has he surprised you with his progress from when you saw him the first time in rookie minicamp ton now?
“Yeah, he’s so good at remembering and then applying things as they occur. He’ll surprise me, like coach, I remember we said this the second day, and then he does it. It’s cool when he can stay in that process. That’s really powerful, because he learns so fast.”
Jason (Tarver), what about Jordan (Hicks) making the decision to retire and how it impacts the room and just your thoughts on what he did here last year?
“We love Jordan (Hicks). When Jordan played football, he gave his all every single play. For a player, he was always finishing in the pile, trying to get the ball out for us. That extreme effort is something that we all learned from him, how to play the game the right way. He’s earned his right. He’s played at the highest level for a really long time, that’s a great career, and that’s an honor to be able to do that. He’s going to be watching us, and we have got some standards to live up to. We’ve learned a lot from him, players and coaches, and we’re going to continue to use that as we go forward.”
Jerome’s (Baker) now one of the oldest in the room, so how is he stepping into a leadership role with these younger guys and what has he provided so far?
“Well, Jerome’s (Baker) seen a lot of things in football, from all the way to college, from playing in space to playing. playing behind a box. He has seen different schemes, heard a lot of different words. So, he’s good at making it easy so he can play fast. So, that’s one, he needs to keep doing that. And then two, the last week – anytime you go to a new team, there’s an adjustment period. And he’s home, and we’re happy he’s home. We’re excited that he can stay in this process and play in front of you. All of us want to come home. I’ve had lots of players over the years when they played their first game at home, oh, my gosh, did they play well. So, I’m excited to see him do that. But in the last week, he’s gotten comfortable in the scheme, and you can see it. He’s really bursting and running, not that he wasn’t before, but now it’s that comfort. So, there’s a learning curve, and his is moving up quickly, so we’re excited about it.”
Pads are on now, but the tackling to the ground that we saw the other day. Carson (Schwesinger) seemed to love it. How exciting is that for you as a linebackers coach cause it seems like those guys are in heaven out there?
“You’ve heard me say our mantra, and that’s run. Because no matter what, we’re going full speed. Shed and tackle the guy with the ball. So, we get to do that at full speed. So anytime we get to do that I’m smiling, and we’re happy. But we have got to do it the right way, of course, against our team, which is keeping everybody up and making higher tackles rather than lower tackles. The simulation of getting off the block and one of the plays Carson (Schwesinger) had is he had to get away from Joel (Bitonio), and that’s great because we know who Joel (Bitonio) is, and Joel (Bitonio) can block pretty darn well, and he strained and he found his way off the block, found his way to finish that tackle, and that’s what we want to see, and he did it. So, we’ll just keep doing that. That’s playing football, that’s playing linebacker.”
I know it’s next man up, but there’s a challenge of losing Jeremiah (Owusu-Koramoah) and Jordan (Hicks), two perceived starters. What has to happen for this unit to not miss a beat?
“Well, I’ll start with some of the other guys we haven’t talked about. Devin Bush got into the system last year and got better and better and better as he went through the year, and he played all three positions. Mohamoud (Diabate) played over 500 snaps, played all three positions. Winston Reid came in and gave us good snaps. Now he’s learning all three positions. Then we get Nate (Watson), who missed summer camp last year, back. So, we have players that have played in this game, and now they’re able to play the other spots. So, it gives us a lot of flexibility in that, all of these young guys are competing, but if somebody does a certain role better, he may earn that role. So, it’s awesome in the room right now, they’re all learning it all, and they’re hyper competitive to do anything, to answer my questions, to get the ball. That’s how we want it. We want the competition, and the guys have embraced the competition. Let’s see how this goes, because it’s fun to watch right now.”
Jason (Tarver), Jordan’s (Hicks) retirement, he’s a big leader in the room. Does that leadership have to spread out over multiple people when you lose a player like that?
“Well, you’ve heard us say it. We’re the nerve center of the defense, but the linebackers are linebackers. That’s our job. Our job is to get everybody lined up, make the call, communicate, then make the D-line right or wear whoever else right and get the guy on the ground. That’s it. So not only has it done that, like, I brought it up to the seven that are in the room and one of the players said, coach, we got seven of the seven of us to do that. That’s the right answer. So, they’re all making calls, they’re all doing a good job with that stuff. Like we’ve said, Carson (Schwesinger) as a rookie has done a really good job with being able to handle one-time fixes. We were just in the indoor, and when he was making the front calls, it was echoing, but we want to be clear and concise. We don’t want to go left (echo), we want to go left, left (clear & concise). You can hear it. It’s getting louder every day for all of them. Winston (Reid) had some the other day. We’re all going to have to do it, and we like it that way.”
As you mentioned earlier, all of the guys are learning all three (linebacker) spots. At this point camp, how are you evaluating that or seeing how they fit into certain roles?
“Well, I’ll give an example. Like Devin (Bush) last year, when he came in and it was his first year, he was doing a little bit more of the space rolls more than right in the middle of the defense. Now, he’s doing it all. So, as they get better, it gives us position flexibility. In modern football, there’s different body types rather than positions. We want to all be able to do it all. We have got to do the things safeties do, and they have got to do the things the linebackers do.”
What are you looking to work on from now to week one? Are weaknesses that you must improve on by then? “We’ve still got our two opportunities to practice against other teams and then play against them. So, right now the biggest thing for me is shedding blocks and getting to the ball. It’s the real shedding. The difference in the NFL is the big men versus college. The big guys are faster and stronger because they’re grown and they’re trained. So, as younger men coming in the league, you’ve got to learn how to do that. You have got to learn how to strain, learn your distance to strike. So, that’s the main focus right now, especially while we’re in pads. As we get to the season, it’ll be more learning the opponents. Right now, it’s all about us.”
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