Silver And Black Pride
Originally, Raiders defensive line coach Rob Leonard had no intent to play football in college, he was set on golf.
In high school, Leonard originally played at Washington & Jefferson college where he posted an interception and 2 tackles as the Presidents went on to achieve a 12-1 record. From there, Leonard who was a cornerback, runningback, returner, holder, and just about anything else at Moon High School. After a year with Washington & Jefferson, Leonard decided he wanted to be close to his dad and decided to walk on at NC State in Raleigh, NC. While at NC State Leonard worked his way through the depth chart before eventually earning a scholarship in 2005. In 2006, he’d go on to be 2nd on the roster in special teams tackles. In 2007, the former walk on was the teams rotational free safety where he played in 12 games recording 20 tackles, a TFL, and a PBU. During his senior season in 2008, Leonard became the teams starting linebacker and led the team in tackles with 83 while also adding 6 TFL, a sack, an INT, and 4 PBU.
Leonard would graduate in 2009 and then join the prestigious Cardinal Gibbons high school staff as an assistant coach, in 2010 he returned to the Wolfpack as a grad assistant on defense. The team won 2 of 3 bowl games in his three seasons there and eventually the jump to the NFL happened for Leonard. In 2013, Leonard joined the New York Giants and Tom Coughlin as an assistant defensive coach. Leonard remained with the Giants as a defensive assistant all the way till 2016, where he transitioned to the teams assistant DL coach in 2017. Here in New York, Leonard got his start on defense. After working under Tom Coughlin for two seasons, Leonard got the opportunity to coach under potential future Hall of Famer and multi time super bowl winning defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo. Additionally, in 2016 Leonard would get the chance to work with now Raiders DC Patrick Graham, who was the Giants defensive line coach. Another coaching move came in 2017, Leonard shifted from the Asst. DL coach to an assistant OLB coach where he got the first taste at leading his own positional group. While working with Graham on the DL, Leonard saw Jason Pierre-Paul and Olivier Vernon combine for 15 sacks, 17 TFL, and 25 QB Hits.
Following a 5-11 season, the Giants saw some turnover and one of these involved their defensive staff. Patrick Graham, who spent 2018 as the Packers LB coach, went south to take the Dolphins defensive coordinator job, and along with him came Leonard who joined the roster as a LB coach. In his first season coaching his own position, Leonard helped Dolphins LB Jerome Baker record 126 tackles, 3 TFL, an INT, 4 PBU, and 1.5 sacks. In addition, linebackers Raekwon McMillan, Vince Biegel, and Samuel Eguavoen combined for 173 tackles, 17 TFL, 6 sacks, INT, 4 PBU, and 2...
