{"id":753662,"date":"2026-02-15T10:34:21","date_gmt":"2026-02-15T10:34:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/753662\/"},"modified":"2026-02-15T10:34:21","modified_gmt":"2026-02-15T10:34:21","slug":"raiders-promoting-rob-leonard-to-dc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/753662\/","title":{"rendered":"Raiders Promoting Rob Leonard To DC"},"content":{"rendered":"

After interviewing a few candidates for the defensive coordinator position under new head coach Klint Kubiak, the Raiders have opted to go with an internal candidate. According to ESPN\u2019s Adam Schefter, run game coordinator\/defensive line coach Rob Leonard is set to be promoted<\/a> to coordinator in Las Vegas. \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

A former college linebacker who led NC State in tackles in 2008, Leonard immediately turned to coaching out of college, starting as a defensive assistant at nearby Cardinal Gibbons HS (N.C.). With a year of experience under his belt, he rejoined his alma mater, spending three years as a graduate assistant with the Wolfpack before making the jump to the NFL in 2013. Leonard made his NFL coaching debut with the Giants, spending four years as a defensive assistant before getting promoted to assistant defensive line coach in 2017 under then-defensive line coach Patrick Graham.<\/p>\n

He moved into the assistant linebackers coaching role the next year, taking over oversight of New York\u2019s outside linebackers, including standout Olivier Vernon<\/a>. In 2019, he reunited with Graham in Miami as the Dolphins linebackers coach, his first full position coaching role. He moved back to assistant defensive line coach in 2020 before being named outside linebackers coach the following year. In that final season with the Dolphins, Leonard coached a rookie Jaelan Phillips<\/a> to an 8.5-sack campaign. In 2022, Leonard found his way to Baltimore, joining Mike Macdonald\u2018s first staff as defensive coordinator for the Ravens, where he helped a veteran Justin Houston<\/a> to a resurgent 9.5-sack season at 33 years old.<\/p>\n

It was at that point that Leonard made his way to Las Vegas, once again reuniting with Graham, the team\u2019s defensive coordinator at the time. As the Raiders\u2019 new defensive line coach in 2023, Leonard took over the tutelage of star defensive end Maxx Crosby<\/a>, helping him to earn his second straight first-team All-Pro honors while recording career highs in sacks (14.5) and tackles for loss (23). It was also the first year Crosby seemed to have any help across the line as defensive end Malcolm Koonce<\/a> (8.0) and defensive tackle Adam Butler<\/a> (5.0) contributed to a team total of 46 sacks, the team\u2019s highest sack total since 2010.<\/p>\n

Despite some contract turbulence and injury issues for Crosby, Leonard has been an agent of continuity for the star pass rusher in Las Vegas. There\u2019s a chance that owner Mark Davis and general manager John Spytek may be leaning on the scale a bit to influence Leonard\u2019s promotion in hopes of increasing their odds of retaining Crosby moving forward. Leonard\u2019s r\u00e9sum\u00e9 speaks for itself, though, with multiple stops showing results with players young and old alike.<\/p>\n

In fact, when Pete Carroll was named head coach in Vegas last year, he interviewed Leonard<\/a> for the DC job before ultimately opting to retain<\/a> Graham. With Graham now in Pittsburgh<\/a>, it\u2019s Leonard\u2019s turn to lead the Raiders defense. According to Tom Pelissero of NFL Network, several NFL and college teams made requests to interview Leonard<\/a> over the past two years, but the Raiders did everything in their power to keep him in the building as \u201cthey believed they had a future star\u201d in Leonard.<\/p>\n

Though several names had been mentioned as defensive coordinator candidates to succeed Graham, only three interviews had been scheduled. In the end, continuity will remain key for a defense that finished 14th in 2025 giving up the 14th-fewest passing yards and the 17th-fewest rushing yards as it looks like Leonard will be promoted to defensive coordinator, pending a finalized deal. According to Jeremy Fowler of ESPN, that continuity will continue with defensive pass-game coordinator Joe Woods being retained in his current role<\/a>. Woods had been a rumored candidate for the DC position, as well.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a final look at how the Raiders\u2019 search for their next defensive coordinator played out:<\/p>\n

DeMarcus Covington, defensive run game coordinator (Packers):\u00a0To interview<\/a>
\nJoe Cullen, defensive line coach (Chiefs):\u00a0Rumored candidate<\/a>
\nJeff Howard, safeties coach (Seahawks):\u00a0To interview 2\/14<\/a>
\nRob Leonard, run game coordinator (Raiders): Promoted
\nZach Orr, former defensive coordinator (Ravens):\u00a0Interview requested<\/a>
\nAubrey Pleasant, defensive pass-game coordinator (Rams):\u00a0To interview 2\/13<\/a>
\nJim Schwartz, defensive coordinator (Browns):\u00a0Rumored candidate<\/a>
\nKarl Scott, defensive backs coach (Seahawks):\u00a0Rumored candidate<\/a>,\u00a0to stay in Seattle<\/a>
\nJason Tarver, linebackers coach (Browns):\u00a0Rumored candidate<\/a>
\nDino Vasso, defensive backs coach (Texans):\u00a0Mentioned as candidate, withdrew from search<\/a>\u00a0
\nJoe Woods, defensive backs coach (Raiders):\u00a0Rumored candidate<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After interviewing a few candidates for the defensive coordinator position under new head coach Klint Kubiak, the Raiders…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":753663,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2065],"tags":[7,103630,1744,393,2455,2454,8730,6,525,28076],"class_list":{"0":"post-753662","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-las-vegas-raiders","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-joe-woods","10":"tag-las-vegas","11":"tag-las-vegas-raiders","12":"tag-lasvegas","13":"tag-lasvegasraiders","14":"tag-newsstand","15":"tag-nfl","16":"tag-raiders","17":"tag-rob-leonard"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116074203281611278","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/753662","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=753662"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/753662\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/753663"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=753662"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=753662"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=753662"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}