| Los Angeles Rams | |||||||
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| Position: | Wide receivers coach | ||||||
| Personal information | |||||||
| Born: | September 22, 1963 Chicago, Illinois, U.S. | ||||||
| Height: | 5 ft 8 in (1.73 m) | ||||||
| Weight: | 156 lb (71 kg) | ||||||
| Career information | |||||||
| High school: | Crenshaw (Los Angeles, California) | ||||||
| College: | Idaho | ||||||
| NFL Draft: | 1986 / Round: 12 / Pick: 323 | ||||||
| Career history | |||||||
| As a player: | |||||||
| As a coach: | |||||||
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| Career highlights and awards | |||||||
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| Career NFL statistics | |||||||
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| Player stats at NFL.com | |||||||
Eric Lamone Yarber (born September 22, 1963) is an American football coach and former college player who is currently the wide receivers coach for the Los Angeles Rams of the National Football League (NFL). He played two seasons in the NFL as a wide receiver for the Washington Redskins in 1986 and 1987, which included a win in Super Bowl XXII.
Born in Chicago, Illinois, Yarber grew up in Southern California in South-Central Los Angeles, and graduated from Crenshaw High School. Though he did not play varsity football in high school due to his size, he played junior college football at Los Angeles Valley College.[1] He transferred to Idaho of the Big Sky Conference in 1984 to play for third-year head coach Dennis Erickson.[1][2] Yarber was the conference MVP in his senior season of 1985, and the Vandals won their first league title since 1971.[3][4] Yarber led the Big Sky in receiving with over 1,100 yards and ten touchdowns during the eleven-game regular season.[5] Teammates on the Palouse included quarterback Scott Linehan and offensive lineman Tom Cable, both future NFL head coaches, and lineman Mark Schlereth.[2][6]
Yarber was selected in the twelfth round of the 1986 NFL Draft by the Washington Redskins and played two seasons.[7]
Yarber began his coaching career back at Idaho in 1996 as a secondary defensive back coach under second-year head coach Chris Tormey. He was the wide receivers coach at UNLV in 1997. The next year, head coach Dennis Erickson hired Yarber to be the offensive quality control coach of the Seattle Seahawks in the NFL, and coached under Erickson from 1998–2004 and 2007–2009.
From 1999–2002, Yarber was on Erickson's staff at Oregon State in the Pac-10 Conference. In 1999, he was the running backs coach, and the next year he became the wide receivers coach. He coached Chad Johnson and T. J. Houshmandzadeh during their time with the Beavers. He followed Erickson back to the pros with the San Francisco 49ers, as the receivers coach in 2003 and 2004. Following Erickson's dismissal, Yarber was the receivers coach for the Washington Huskies for two seasons under head coach Tyrone Willingham.[8] In 2007, Yarber became the receivers coach for the Arizona State under Erickson through 2009.[9]
In 2010, Yarber moved back to the NFL for two seasons with as the wide receivers coach for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.[10] Following a 4–12 record in 2011, Raheem Morris and his staff were fired on January 2, 2012. A week later on January 9, Yarber was named the wide receivers coach for UCLA under new head coach Jim Mora. He returned to the NFL in 2017 as the wide receivers coach for the Los Angeles Rams. Yarber won his first championship as coach and second overall after the Rams defeated the Cincinnati Bengals in Super Bowl LVI.[11]
Yarber received his bachelor's degree from the University of Idaho in 1995. He was married in June 2005 to his wife Michele and they have one son Kameryon.