As last we heard, Las Vegas has appointed veteran UCLA employee DeShaun Foster as their new running backs coach, while former Raiders running backs coach Kennedy Polamalu was leaving for the same role in Seattle. Foster has been chosen as Chip Kelly’s replacement in Los Angeles, according to Pete Thamel of ESPN. Kelly unexpectedly resigned from his position as head coach of the Bruins to accept the position of offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at Ohio State, meaning the Raiders will have to start over in search of a new running backs coach.
The Raiders are looking to a familiar figure to fill the position among millennial NFL fans. According to Vincent Bonsignore of the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Las Vegas returned to the collegiate ranks when it hired Carnell Williams, a.k.a. “Cadillac,” as Auburn’s assistant head coach and coach of running backs. After seven NFL seasons, the 2005 Offensive Rookie of the Year’s playing career came to an end. Eventually, he would pursue a career in coaching, spending a year at the elite IMG Academy for high school students after beginning his career at minor universities like Henderson State and West Georgia.
Williams then spent a year coaching running backs in the Alliance of American Football league prior to making his initial campus visit in 2019. Williams has been Auburn’s running backs coach for the last five years. He was named associate head coach this past season after serving as interim head coach in 2022. Tank Bigsby, a third-round rookie for the Jaguars the previous season, would have been the most well-known name to emerge from his position group in Alabama.
Josh Jacobs, Brandon Bolden, and Ameer Abdullah—three prominent backs—are all expected to sign free agents, leaving Williams with a room that will only accommodate third-year rusher Zamir White. Williams’ opinions can be very important in shaping the position group throughout the offseason.
A couple more staff updates from Sin City are as follows:
According to Ian Rapoport of NFL Network, the Raiders were also successful in acquiring James Cregg, a former assistant offensive line coach for the 49ers, for the position of offensive line coach. After spending the previous two years in San Francisco, Cregg will join Vegas as a full-time position coach in the NFL. Although he has previously served as an assistant to the Raiders, Broncos, and Chargers and held the position of offensive line coach at three separate Power 5 universities in the collegiate ranks, this will be his first offensive line coach title in the NFL.
DeAndre Pierce, the son of incoming head coach Antonio Pierce, has also joined the Raiders’ offensive line.
