former Miami Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel and current Carolina Panthers defensive coordinator Ejiro Evero<\/a>.<\/p>\nWhen minority owner Tom Brady and general manager John Spytek make the pivotal decision on who the leading man will be for Las Vegas, expect turnover in the remaining coaching staff. Leonard is one of the incumbents that could stick despite yet another swap at the top spot on the coaching staff.<\/p>\n
All Gas, No Ego<\/p>\n
A high-energy coach that brings enthusiasm to the table, Leonard\u2019s optimism, energy, and dedication to football are traits that make him a player\u2019s coach. Despite entering the NFL coaching game in 2013 with the New York Giants, Leonard has no ego during his 13-year stint.<\/p>\n
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Combine the energy and positivity with the lack of arrogance and it\u2019s easy to see why players under Leonard\u2019s charge flock to him. From defensive coordinator Patrick Graham and other coaches, to Raiders like Maxx Crosby, all speak highly of Leonard\u2019s ability and command in the defensive room, highlighting his ability to build and maintain a culture.<\/p>\n
While positivity is his calling card, Leonard doesn\u2019t hold any of his defenders above reproach. By using game film to showcase both highlights and lowlights as teach tape, that style of teaching aligned with Graham. In his initial season as the defensive run game coordinator along with his defensive line boss duties Leonard helped the Raiders earn the distinction of the 17th-ranked unit in terms of rushing yards allowed (1,986). That\u2019s one less yard than the team allowed in 2024 where the group was ranked 13th in ground yards yielded.<\/p>\n
As mentioned earlier, Leonard entered the NFL ranks as a defensive assistant for Tom Coughlin\u2019s Giants in 2013. He elevated to assistant defensive line and linebackers coach his final two seasons of his six-year stay in New York then moved on to the Miami Dolphins for three seasons where he served as linebackers coach, assistant defensive line coach, then outside linebackers coach. That\u2019s a position he held with the Baltimore Ravens in 2022 before joining the Raiders the following season as defensive line boss.<\/p>\n
Development & Production<\/p>\n
Crosby remains a consistent havoc creator on the defensive line with a team-leading 10 sacks to go along with 28 tackles for loss and 20 quarterback hits in 15 games (all starts) this past season. Fellow defensive end Malcolm Koonce finished second with 4.5 sacks while defensive tackles Jonah Laulu and rookie Tonka Hemingway each had four. As did defensive end Tyree Wilson with fellow edge adding three.<\/p>\n
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The production from a rookie defensive tackle is a highlight, but overall, Las Vegas finished 18th in sacks with 37. The year before, the Raiders finished 21st in the league with 38 sacks and the high mark for Leonard\u2019s tenure was a 15th ranking in 2023 with the Raiders collecting 46 total sacks. And that year was the breakout season for Koonce who notched a career-high eight sacks in 17 games (11 starts). He did suffer a torn ACL in preseason in 2024 and began showcase the burst he had in the second half of the 2025 campaign.<\/p>\n
Then there\u2019s Wilson, the seventh overall pick in the 2023 NFL Draft, who hasn\u2019t quite found any solid footing in his three seasons so far. Finishing with four sacks and 35 tackles, including a career-high eight tackles for loss, the Texas Tech product has 12 sacks, 91 total tackles, 16 stops for loss, and four forced fumbles in 50 career games (seven starts).<\/p>\n
It\u2019s that inconsistent statical production along with what appears to be a plateaued career trajectory for Wilson that are knocks on Leonard. The 121 sacks over the three seasons as defensive line boss looks solid, however, there are stretches where his group struggled getting to the quarterback consistently. There\u2019s mitigating factors to that, of course. Roster and depth \u2014 namely availability \u2014 hinders any coach and Leonard isn\u2019t the defensive play caller, Graham is.<\/p>\n
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But Leonard has a hand in the performance. And the stagnation of Wilson is a sore point for both Leonard and Graham.<\/p>\n
The Outlook<\/p>\n
Las Vegas\u2019 excursion to hire yet another head coach has the look of deliberate. Two of the first reported in-person talks are on tap as the quest continues and that\u2019s a solid step in the process.<\/p>\n
But as Spytek noted, the coaches who remain with the Raiders are still under contract and it\u2019ll be up to the next head honcho to decide the makeup of their staff.<\/p>\n
With extensive experience \u2014 in his 13 seasons, Leonard has worked with eight different head coaches and has a diverse knowledge base because of it \u2014 alongside having player-favor, the run game coordinator and defensive line boss merits a long look by the new leader.<\/p>\n
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There\u2019s a high likelihood Leonard won\u2019t be out of work for long if he finds himself not in the Raiders\u2019 plans.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Despite regime changes, Rob Leonard remained a constant. He even got an additional title \u2014 run game coordinator…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":694956,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2065],"tags":[12632,117,101428,1156,10049,1487,7,6496,25436,1744,393,2455,2454,6562,6563,216,251,56,6,14269,3976,525,28076,101427,1369,2781,7034],"class_list":{"0":"post-694955","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-las-vegas-raiders","8":"tag-antonio-pierce","9":"tag-baltimore-ravens","10":"tag-carolina-panthers-defensive-coordinator","11":"tag-defensive-line","12":"tag-defensive-line-coach","13":"tag-defensive-tackles","14":"tag-football","15":"tag-head-coach","16":"tag-jonah-laulu","17":"tag-las-vegas","18":"tag-las-vegas-raiders","19":"tag-lasvegas","20":"tag-lasvegasraiders","21":"tag-malcolm-koonce","22":"tag-maxx-crosby","23":"tag-miami","24":"tag-miami-dolphins","25":"tag-new-york-giants","26":"tag-nfl","27":"tag-patrick-graham","28":"tag-pete-carroll","29":"tag-raiders","30":"tag-rob-leonard","31":"tag-run-game-coordinator","32":"tag-tom-brady","33":"tag-tonka-hemingway","34":"tag-tyree-wilson"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115935754970256087","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/694955","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=694955"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/694955\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/694956"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=694955"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=694955"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=694955"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}