Last we had heard, with former Raiders running backs coach Kennedy Polamalu heading to Seattle for the same position, Las Vegas had selected longtime UCLA staffer DeShaun Foster to take over as their new running backs coach.
With Chip Kelly shockingly stepping down as head coach of the Bruins to take the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coaching job at Ohio State, Foster has been selected as Kelly’s replacement, per Pete Thamel of ESPN, forcing the Raiders to go back to the drawing board for their next running backs coach.
To fill the role, the Raiders are turning to a name millennial NFL fans will recognize. Las Vegas dipped back to the college ranks, confirmed by Vincent Bonsignore of the Las Vegas Review-Journal, hiring Auburn associate head coach and running backs coach Carnell Williams, known during his playing days as “Cadillac.”
The 2005 Offensive Rookie of the Year’s playing career ended after seven seasons in the NFL. He would eventually turn to coaching as a career, starting at small colleges like Henderson State and West Georgia before spending a year at the high school level at the prestigious IMG Academy.
Williams followed that up with a year as a running backs coach in the Alliance of American Football before first arriving at his alma mater in 2019. Williams has coached running backs at Auburn for the last five years, spending a stint in 2022 as interim head coach and earning the title of associate head coach this past season.
The most notable name coming out of his position group in Alabama would’ve been Tank Bigsby, a third-round rookie for the Jaguars last year.
With star back Josh Jacobs, Ameer Abdullah, and Brandon Bolden bound for free agency, Williams inherits a room that is currently only slated to hold Zamir White. Perhaps Williams’ input will be crucial in how the position group is formed this offseason.
Here are a few other staff updates coming out of Sin City:
More must-reads:
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