{"id":758872,"date":"2026-02-17T19:17:14","date_gmt":"2026-02-17T19:17:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/758872\/"},"modified":"2026-02-17T19:17:14","modified_gmt":"2026-02-17T19:17:14","slug":"raiders-add-travis-smith-rick-dennison-to-coaching-staff","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/758872\/","title":{"rendered":"Raiders Add Travis Smith, Rick Dennison To Coaching Staff"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Raiders hired Travis Smith to be their defensive line coach under new head coach Klint Kubiak, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.raiders.com\/news\/raiders-name-travis-smith-defensive-line-coach\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">per a team announcement<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/cdn.profootballrumors.com\/files\/2018\/01\/Rick-Dennison-feat.jpg\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-91120 size-medium\" style=\"border: 2px solid #000000;margin: 15px\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Rick-Dennison-feat-218x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"218\" height=\"300\"  \/><\/a>Smith is returning to Las Vegas after three years in Chicago (defensive line coach) and one in Tennessee (defensive run game coordinator).\u00a0He was announced as the Titans\u2019 senior defensive assistant\/pass rush specialist on Robert Saleh\u2018s staff, but is instead opting to reunite with the Raiders, for whom he coached from 2012 to 2021. He served in a variety of roles on the defensive side of the ball and worked closely with Maxx Crosby at the beginning of his career.<\/p>\n<p>Also joining Kubiak\u2019s staff is Rick Dennison, <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/mzenitz\/status\/2023607598642262127?s=20\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">per CBS Sports\u2019 Matt Zenitz<\/a>. Dennison, 67, has spent the last three decades coaching in the NFL, primarily working with offensive linemen with coordinator stints in Denver, Houston, and Buffalo. He and Kubiak have worked together since 2016, Dennison\u2019s last year as the Broncos\u2019 OC and Kubiak\u2019s first as an offensive assistant.<\/p>\n<p>The two then overlapped in Minnesota from 2019 to 2021, after which Dennison stepped away from coaching. He returned to the NFL in 2024 to join Kubiak\u2019s offensive staff in New Orleans as a senior assistant and followed him to Seattle last year. Dennison then served as the Seahawks\u2019 run game coordinator\/senior offensive advisor in 2025 and will now join the Raiders in a yet-to-be announced role.<\/p>\n<p>Kubiak is still looking to fill the quarterbacks coach position on his staff, and Vikings asst. OC\/asst. QBs coach Jordan Traylor is a candidate for the job, <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/AaronWilson_NFL\/status\/2023178532952957261\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">per KPRC2\u2019s Aaron Wilson<\/a>. He previously worked under Kubiak in New Orleans in 2024, on the same staff as Dennison and now-Raiders OC Andrew Janocko.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Raiders hired Travis Smith to be their defensive line coach under new head coach Klint Kubiak, per&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":42919,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2026],"tags":[7,108419,393,108285,261,394,27435],"class_list":{"0":"post-758872","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-football","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-jordan-traylor","10":"tag-las-vegas-raiders","11":"tag-rick-dennison","12":"tag-seattle-seahawks","13":"tag-tennessee-titans","14":"tag-travis-smith"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116087584706236116","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/758872","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=758872"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/758872\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42919"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=758872"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=758872"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=758872"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}