After a difficult start on Friday of trying to get candidates in the building to interview for the Las Vegas Raiders' vacant coordinator jobs, Klint Kubiak and John Spytek have found their groove. Coveted defensive assistants Aubrey Pleasant and Jeff Howard both spoke with the Raiders' brass.
While fans are excited about the prospect of those two young candidates, many have advocated for Kubiak, a first-time head coach who cut his teeth on offense, to hire a more experienced defensive coordinator. And in many ways, that is a sound argument.
Along that line, the Raiders requested to interview and will speak with Green Bay Packers defensive line coach and passing game coordinator DeMarcus Covington. Not only has Covington served as an NFL defensive coordinator before, but he has also worked with Tom Brady for several years.
Raiders will interview Packers assistant DeMarcus Covington for DC job
The best piece of Covington's résumé is that he was the New England Patriots' defensive coordinator for the 2024 NFL season, and he crossed paths with Brady in Foxborough for three seasons from 2017 to 2019. For the first two seasons, Covington was a "Coaching Assistant."
His defense in 2024 wasn't tremendous, but the Patriots' roster sorely lacked talent and dealt with injuries that year. They finished 22nd in points allowed, but fielded a top-10 offense against the pass and were ranked 14th in yards per rushing attempt allowed. That's certainly not terrible.
Before he joined the coaching ranks, Covington was a wide receiver at Division I FCS Samford. After that, he jumped on as a defensive graduate assistant at the University of Alabama at Birmingham to begin his college coaching career.
Covington then spent the 2013 and 2014 seasons as a defensive graduate assistant at Ole Miss under Hugh Freeze, where he worked closely with 12 future NFL players across two years, including longtime slot cornerback Mike Hilton.
RELATED:Â Raiders' Klint Kubiak hire just opened the door to blockbuster NFL WR trade
He became a defensive line coach at the University of Tennessee at Martin, another FCS school, before jumping to a co-defensive coordinator and defensive line coach gig at Eastern Illinois. Then, he hopped on the Patriots' staff in 2017 and kept rising through the ranks until 2024.
Mike Vrabel came in and cleaned house in 2025, but Covington spent seven years learning under Bill Belichick and also had the chance to absorb information from and work alongside Brian Flores, Matt Patricia, Jerod Mayo and Joe Judge.
In 2025, he joined Matt LaFleur's defensive staff, where he worked under now-Miami Dolphins head coach Jeff Hafley and Derrick Ansley, a well-respected NFL assistant coach. He's certainly not a household name, but at 36 years old, he is both young and has NFL defensive play-calling experience.
It certainly doesn't hurt his case that he comes from the Patriots, as Brady, a minority owner with a large voice, still has an affinity for those who have come from New England. The Raiders are Rooney Rule compliant, so they could hire a defensive coordinator at any moment. Perhaps it'll be Covington.