Raiders' DL Coach Leonard on Being a Players' Coach

Las Vegas Raiders defensive line coach Rob Leonard talked about his transition from player to coach.

The Las Vegas Raiders have surrounded their team with coaches who know football and can relate to players. 

Some coaches on the staff are former players, including, of course, Coach Antonio Pierce, a former Super Bowl champion linebacker. Safeties coach Gerald Alexander also spent time in the league. 

Defensive line coach Rob Leonard is another position coach who has inspired excellent play out of his group. A former player at North Carolina State, Leonard joined the Raiders’ staff in 2023. 

Since then, defensive end Malcolm Koonce has emerged as an effective player off the edge, and star Maxx Crosby has elevated his game to another level. 

Former players know how to coach players. Leonard had to learn quite a bit. He talked about his transition from player to coach when he  joined Crosby on the latest episode of his podcast, "The Rush with Maxx Crosby."

“To be honest with you, I wanted nothing to do with coaching,” Leonard said. “I signed to play in Germany with the GFL Essen Cardinals. I was leaving in a week, and I got offered to come back as a GA at NC State. My folks were like, ‘What are you going to do when you come back? You’re going to make $3,000 a month; you’re going to be sitting there again.’ So I was like, ‘All right, I’ll do this GA thing.’ Didn’t say two words for a month.

“Then, this guy named Jon Tenuta, who’s a legendary defensive coordinator, took me and said, ‘You’re with me.’ He called me ‘Coach Bozo.’ But he taught me more football in three years, and I’m really inspired by being genuine, being authentic, being myself because of the way I was coached. You know how certain coaches can be. You see other coaches' lives, you’re like, ‘I don’t want to be that person; I don’t want to live that lifestyle.’”

“I just coach players the way I would have wanted to be coached. I’m really driven by that, to be honest with you, because I still think that way. I do drills with these guys, whether it’s f---ed up or not. I look at Tyree [Wilson], and I seriously think I might just jack him one time.”

Click here to watch the full podcast episode with Crosby, Leonard, and more Raiders defensive line guests.

The NFL Draft will be held in Detroit, Mich., on April 25-27, 2024. The Las Vegas Raiders currently have the No. 13 overall pick.

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