Raiders.com is publishing a series of Q&As with the Silver and Black's position coaches.

Now we move over to the defensive side of the ball, starting with defensive line coach Travis Smith. He came back to the desert this offseason after spending his last four seasons with the Chicago Bears and Tennessee Titans. Before those two stints, he spent 10 seasons with the Raiders in various roles, last serving as the assistant defensive line for a Raiders team that clinched a playoff berth in 2021.

Here's more on Smith's decision to come back to the Raiders and what he's learned in his time away from the team.

Levi Edwards: How cool is it for you to come back to the Raiders?

Travis Smith: "I think it's awesome. To have an opportunity in this profession to be here ... one place for 10 years with so many different coaches and people and staff, leave and then four or five years later to be able to come back and still be growing in this profession and being around new people is awesome. But also the thing that I know myself and my family appreciate just as much is that there are still people that were here before. That's part of the reason we came back too."

LE: We can't talk about people you worked before without talking about Maxx Crosby. How excited are you to coach him again?

TS: "That was definitely exciting for me coming back, to have him here to be in the room. I was here obviously when we drafted him, and then [was] there on his pro day when I was the only coach there to watch him. To go through that conversation with Coach [Jon] Gruden and [Mike] Mayock about taking him in the fourth round, to seeing his growth as a young player for those first couple of years, to leave and then see where he is now – it's really exciting to see his growth. But it's also exciting to see how hungry and energetic he is towards getting better and working harder and becoming a better leader."

LE: What's the biggest difference you've noticed in the building now versus when you left?

TS: "Transition. You think from that last year in '21, all the adversity and things that took place that year ... to where, with several of those vets – anyone from Quinton Jefferson, Solomon Thomas, K.J. Wright, Denzel Perryman, Yannick Ngakoue – made that run to where we were able to make the playoffs. After the playoff loss to Cincinnati, being gone five years and how much things change, that obviously takes place in this business with players, coaches and even staff members. This organization has added several positions. If you look around, this organization has grown immensely from what it used to be in Oakland, and even our first few years in Las Vegas."

LE: In your time away from the Raiders, what do you believe has been your biggest area of improvement as a coach?

TS: "The fortunate thing I had here being here for 10 years with several different staffs, there's so many different ways to play football, to communicate with people, to teach and develop. But there's also a humility aspect of it. If you drop your ego, internally as coaches, we can grow as well. The bottom line is, it's not who's right, it's what's right. And so leaving and being around new players, new staff, new buildings, new personnel departments – there was a lot of transition and change and ways to try to pursue the same goals that helped me grow as a young coach."

LE: What role did you play in the team drafting DE Keyron Crawford out of Auburn and what do you like about his game?

TS: "Like all the coaches, we all had a responsibility to evaluate a list of talent. It's not to look at what they can't do, it's to look at what they can do. He was one of those guys we evaluated. As a D-line coach, I'm always fired up when we have an opportunity to draft them at any pick in the draft during those seven rounds. ... Competition breeds growth and so thats the whole thing. Part of free agency and the draft is try to bring in more talent, not just to make the team better, but to make the guys we have on the current roster better too."

LE: What's the standard you're setting for your defensive line?

TS: "It's an effort-based front. Whether we're rushing four, we're rushing five, we're rushing three – it doesn't matter. The intensity and disposition that we play with is non-negotiable. We're going to teach fundamentals, we're going to teach technique ... but the bottom line is the one thing they all have control over is their effort. Every coach talks about it, every coach says it, but it's the real ones that keep accountable to it."