Jim Tomsula to Redskins: Latest Contract Details, Comments and Reaction

Former San Francisco 49ers head coach Jim Tomsula has returned to coaching, accepting a job with the Washington Redskins as their defensive line coach.

The Redskins announced the hire on Monday. Carol Maloney of NBC4 first reported Tomsula's agreement Sunday, also noting his prior experience working with Redskins defensive coordinator Greg Manusky. 

The Redskins promoted Manusky to defensive coordinator after he spent the previous season as the outside linebackers coach, Mike Garafolo and Ian Rapoport of NFL Network reported Sunday. Manusky worked with Tomsula from 2007 to 2010 in San Francisco.

The 48-year-old Tomsula has been an NFL coach since 2007, when the 49ers hired him as a defensive line coach under then-head coach Mike Nolan. He spent eight years in that role and had a one-game stint as the interim head coach in 2010 after the team fired Mike Singletary.

The 49ers promoted Tomsula to head coach in 2015 after parting ways with Jim Harbaugh. A slew of offseason departures, as well as a midseason change at quarterback from Colin Kaepernick to Blaine Gabbert, gave him little chance to succeed, and the team fired him after going 5-11.

Though Tomsula may have been ill-equipped for another head coaching gig so soon after San Francisco's disappointing 2015 campaign, Jason La Canfora of CBSSports.com tweeted that he would have "ample options to join staffs as a DC or DL coach."

Harbaugh had high praise for Tomsula as a coach and person when the 49ers hired him in 2011.

"It was a very easy decision after speaking with him," Harbaugh said, per Ryan Wilson of CBSSports.com. "He's had a special gift of presence, personality, of teaching ability and that came shining through. I remember that first meeting. And that's one position I've just never had to worry about since I've been here as the head coach."

Tomsula is a blue-collar worker who has had to work his way up from nothing to carve out a career as an NFL coach.

ESPN's Michele Steele shared some of the random odd jobs he's done:

That kind of everyman spirit makes it easy to see how players would gravitate toward Tomsula.

The Redskins seem to have faith in Tomsula's ability to work with the defensive line. He did well in that role with San Francisco, especially while working with defensive coordinator Vic Fangio from 2011 to 2013, when the 49ers reached three consecutive NFC Championship Games with one of the best defenses in the NFL.