Former NFL defense Darryl Tapp is returning to the league as a coach.
According to Field Yates of ESPN.com, Tapp is joining the staff of the San Francisco 49ers as an assistant defensive line coach.
Tapp spent the last year as a co-defensive line coach at his alma mater of Virginia Tech. He had previous one-year stops at Vanderbilt and Central Michigan as he began his coaching career after retiring from the game following the 2017 season.
A former second-round pick of the Seattle Seahawks in 2006, Tapp played parts of 12 seasons in the NFL for six different teams. After his first four seasons with Seattle, he was traded to the Philadelphia Eagles and spent three seasons with the team. He played one season with Washington in 2013, two years with the Detroit Lions in 2014-15, parts of two seasons with the New Orleans Saints in 2016-17 and finished his career briefly with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2017.
49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan was the offensive coordinator in Washington when Tapp spent his one season with the team.
Tapp replaces Aaron Whitecotton as the team’s assistant to Kris Kocurek. Whitecotton left to join Robert Saleh’s new staff with the New York Jets.
