Raiders Coaching Profile: David Lippincott, Linebackers
We’re all counting down the clock until football is back. It’s time to get to know the coaches.
In this series, we’ll profile every Las Vegas position coach, coordinator, and head coach. Today, we continue meeting the defense personnel with linebackers coach David Lippincott.
David Lippincott, Linebackers Coach
David Lippincott is entering his third year with the Raiders, 13th year overall in the NFL. Before his arrival to Las Vegas, he previously served with the Cincinnati Bengals for a decade.
In 2018, Lippincott led a linebacker group that was good for 19th overall in pass defense, which was an improvement compared to their 26th overall ranking the season before.
That 2019 squad was led by linebacker Tahir Whitehead, who came from the Detroit Lions, and led the Raiders defense with 126 tackles, good for ninth in the league, and is the seventh-best in franchise history. Whitehead also booked 89 solo tackles during his 2018 campaign.
Lippincott began his pro football coaching career in Cincinnati, serving seven years as a full-time staff member. During that time, the Bengals made the playoffs five times, winning AFC North titles in 2013 and 2015.
During his time in Cincinnati, Lippincott, as an assistant linebackers/quality control coach, helped develop one of the NFL’s most effective defenses.
During his full-time tenure, his unit ranked in the top half in the fewest points allowed per game, finishing in the top-10 in five years. Additionally, Lippincott helped create the league’s No. 1 defense in terms of interceptions, with a league-best 69 picks from 2014–17.
With 12 years of NFL coaching under his belt, Lippincott is now tasked with working with a reasonably young linebacker unit. It consists of Nicholas Morrow, Cory Littleton, and Nick Kwiatkoski, who all will play on the same squad for the first time in their careers.
After leading an injury-plagued unit last season, it will be necessary for Lippincott to not only make his group work like a well-oiled machine to apply pressure in the middle of the field. He must keep his young squad healthy during the 2020 season.
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