HEADLINE

Report: Gruden fires DL coach to reunite with Marinelli

Field Level Media

January 14, 2020 at 9:04 pm.

Raiders coach Jon Gruden is changing his defensive line coach and is expected to hire former Dallas Cowboys defensive coordinator Rod Marinelli for the position, NFL Network reported Tuesday.

The Raiders are parting ways with Brentson Buckner, who helped the defense improve from a league-low 13 sacks in 2018 to 32 in his one season with the team.

Buckner told The Athletic that Gruden called him Tuesday and said, “I need to make a change. I need to make room for someone; it was nothing you did.”

Marinelli had been the Cowboys’ coordinator for the past six seasons, but new Dallas head coach Mike McCarthy has tabbed Mike Nolan for that position. The Raiders’ move reunites Gruden with the 70-year-old Marinelli, who was the assistant head coach/defensive line coach in Tampa Bay when the Gruden-led Buccaneers won Super Bowl XXXVII after the 2002 season.

The 48-year-old Buckner, a second-round draft pick of the Pittsburgh Steelers in 1994, spent 12 seasons as a defensive lineman in the NFL. He was the defensive line coach for the Buccaneers in 2018. He also has coached with the Arizona Cardinals and was a coaching intern with the Steelers.

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