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

We take a look at one of the team's most seasoned coaches in Joe Woods, who has over 20 years of coaching experience at the NFL level. He's previously served as a defensive coordinator for the Cleveland Browns, Denver Broncos and New Orleans Saints, and is now going into his second season with the Raiders as their pass game coordinator & defensive backs coach.

Woods details his relationship with the Kubiak family, his biggest lessons learned throughout his coaching career and his expectations of some of the Raiders' young cornerbacks.

Levi Edwards: How excited are you to keep working on this Raiders coaching staff?

Joe Woods: "We had a rough year last year and then when everything happened, you're thinking about your future and what's going to happen. I'm fortunate enough that I've had a relationship with Coach Kubiak. I've coached with him three times, so he knows how I work. I coached defensive backs for his dad [Gary Kubiak]. We won a Super Bowl in Denver. ... I feel fortunate to be back. Last year was unfortunate, but I feel confident that we can put together a better product on the field this year."

LE: Based on your previous working relationship with Klint Kubiak, how does he operate as a coach?

JW: "He's very straight to the point. He doesn't ride the emotional rollercoaster. When you see him, he's even keel all the time. He's not a big yeller or screamer, he just tells you the truth. I think that's an important thing; you just want to tell guys the truth. Not what they want to hear but what they need to hear, and he does that."

LE: How has your relationship with Rob Leonard grown as he's been promoted from defensive line coach to defensive coordinator?

JW: "I developed a great relationship with Robbie last year. When you go through all those struggles during the season, you're always talking about how you can get better. So there were some late nights where we were in there talking football and I could see his vision. I think for him coming in, just building the foundation, his vision of how he sees things being run defensively, his attention to detail in terms of how he wants techniques taught, how we verbalize that ... he's really one of the best guys I've been around just in terms of doing that in a short period of time."

LE: Who are some players you've learned the most from as a coach?

JW: "Antoine [Winfield Sr.] was just a great football player. He was a little guy, he was 5-foot-9, he never weighed less than 182 and never weighed more than 184 in the years I coached him. But he was a guy that could go in there and he'd knock out a running back and go outside and cover Calvin Johnson. I learned a lot from him because of his experience playing football, just in terms of how he saw the game, some of the conversations we had and also how to handle things outside of football.

"And then Aqib [Talib], he was just a real prideful player and he has an explosive personality. But when it came down to the field, he was always asking, 'How can I be better?' His pride in the details and practicing the game was different than other guys that I've coached and I just learned a lot from him from that standpoint."

LE: What's the best piece of advice you've been given as a coach and who was it from?

JW: "Mike Tomlin is my biggest mentor, and I think the biggest thing [I learned] is it's all about the players. Our job is to make them the best football players than can possibly can be so they can have a long career, help us win games and help them get additional contracts. My job as a coach is to make you the best player that you can be, and that's the biggest thing."

LE: What do you believe is the one trait you need to have to be a successful cornerback in the NFL?

JW: "To me, it's confidence. Players in the league, they're here for a reason. They're all going to have an athletic skillset. If they didn't have that skillset, they wouldn't be here. So it comes down to those guys. 'Do I have the confidence to play?' That's the biggest thing for me. Technique-wise, you can work on things to improve some of their weaknesses, but if they don't have that confidence to go stand out there on an island ... it's hard to play in this league."

LE: What makes you the most excited about going into a second season with the cornerbacks?

JW: "I think the experience and the growth. We got Eric Stokes last year as a free agent and I had conversations with him just about being more persistent with his technique. I think for him last year, he gave up like one touchdown, really no explosive plays, and I saw that confidence grow throughout the year. Then when we re-signed him, you see that same confidence. I feel like he's going to continue to ascend as a player.

"And that's the same thing with Darien Porter. Darien was a guy in college that only played DB for really like a year. So he was really learning on the run, and I think the reps that he got towards the end of last season in the games really helped him. I can see that confidence this offseason because he went through that process last year. ... I think he's going to be in a position to be more comfortable playing the field and doing the things we're going to ask him to do."