Report: Raiders fire defensive line coach Frank Okam

The Las Vegas Raiders fired defensive line coach Frank Okam on Sunday evening, according to Vincent Bonsignore of the Las Vegas Review-Journal. He was with the Raiders for just one season, after being hired by defensive coordinator Patrick Graham.

Okam played six seasons in the National Football League and also coached in the college football coaching ranks at Rice and Baylor, before coaching with the Carolina Panthers and recently, the Las Vegas Raiders. The Las Vegas defensive line only had 21.5 sacks last year, ranking them third to last place in the league in that stat category. Only the Atlanta Falcons and Chicago Bears were worse in getting pressure on the quarterback in the 2022-2023 season.

The Raiders have not yet named a replacement for Okam.

During his playing career in the National Football League, Okam spent time with the Houston Texans (2008-2010), Seattle Seahawks (2010), Tampa Bay Buccaneers (2010-2012), and the New York Giants very briefly in 2013.

During his college football playing career for the Texas Longhorns, the 6-foot-5, 350-pounder earned freshman All-American honors in 2004. As a sophomore, he started all 13 games for the Longhorns at nose tackle, and even had five tackles and a sack in Texas’s victory over the USC Trojans in the 2005-2006 National Championship. As a junior, he earned honorable mention All-Big 12 honors from the Associated Press. Throughout his four-year career in Austin, Okam wrapped it up with 160 total tackles, 10 sacks, a forced fumble, five recovered fumbles, and 12 deflected passes.

A dynamic athlete in high school, Okam competed in football, track, and basketball for Lake Highlands High School (Dallas, Texas). Weighing in at 300 pounds, he ran an impressive 4.9-40-yard dash time. One of the more highly touted prospects in the country, he was named to the U.S. Army All-American Bowl. Okam chose Texas over offers from Florida, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, and Stanford, among others.