The Commanders‘ new coaching staff under head coach Dan Quinn is starting to take shape as he and his coordinators continue to hire new assistant coaches. The most recent of which sees yet another former 49ers staffer in assistant defensive line coach Darryl Tapp find his way to the nation’s capital to serve as Quinn’s new defensive line coach, per Adam Schefter of ESPN.
Following a long playing career that saw him travel the NFC in places like Seattle, Philadelphia, Washington, Detroit, New Orleans and Tampa Bay, Tapp went straight into coaching, taking a defensive quality control coaching job at Central Michigan. He followed that up with two more year-long stints as a special teams quality control coach at Vanderbilt and a co-defensive line coach at Virginia Tech.
Tapp got his first NFL coaching opportunity when offered his current position of assistant defensive line coach in San Francisco. He’s held the position for the past three years, helping Kris Kocurek coach up some of the best defensive linemen in the game of football. It didn’t take long for Tapp to get his first opportunity to coach the position on his own.
Washington traded away two of their better defensive linemen this past season in Chase Young and Montez Sweat, but the team still has some extremely talented pieces in Daron Payne and Jonathan Allen. Tapp got to work a bit with Young after the former second-overall pick was traded, so he may have a bit of insight on how to connect with the Commanders defensive line.
Here are a few other staff updates coming out of Washington:
- Speaking of former 49ers staffers, we already saw Wednesday that Washington has hired San Francisco’s assistant head coach and running backs coach Anthony Lynn to their new run-game coordinator position. Well, according to Nicki Jhabvala of the Washington Post, Lynn’s title will also include running backs coach. Lynn leaves Christian McCaffrey in California and will now coach a group that includes Brian Robinson, Chris Rodriguez and Derrick Gore. Veteran back Antonio Gibson is currently bound for free agency.
- Finally, on the coaching staff, Jhabvala also reports that offensive quality control coach Shane Toub will remain on staff for the Commanders. Toub just finished his first year on staff in Washington but has four prior years of experience on the Bears’ coaching staff. He will continue to work in Washington, now under new offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury.
- Outside of the coaching staff, Jhabvala also informs that, in the front office, senior vice president of football administration Rob Rogers is set to remain in place “at least through the draft.” It’s unclear if the team has plans to switch things up in the front office after this April, but for now, Rogers’ job is safe.
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