Giants Lose Defensive Assistant from John Harbaugh’s Staff

Just less than 48 hours after the New York Giants unveiled the assistant coaching staff of new head coach John Harbaugh, there is already a tweak that will need to be made.

Assistant defensive line coach Matt Robinson is heading to the Las Vegas Raiders to become their defensive backs coach. The move represents a promotion for Robinson from an assistant position coach to a full position coach role on the new Raiders head coach Klint Kubiak’s staff.

Robinson was one of 15 assistant coaches who followed Harbaugh from Baltimore, where he was the Ravens’ outside linebackers coach last season, to the Giants. The 32-year-old assistant coach has five seasons of NFL experience, all with the Ravens under Harbaugh.

Robinson, in his intended role with the Giants, was to have worked directly with defensive line coach Dennis Johnson, another one of the 15 assistants Harbaugh hired to his Giants staff that were previously with him in Baltimore.

In 2024, Robinson was part of a Ravens coaching staff whose defense allowed the NFL's fewest rush yards per game (80.1), yards per rush (3.6), and opponent rushing first downs (69), while also ranking No. 2 in both sacks (54) and QB hits (115). 

In 2023, Baltimore's defensive front contributed to the unit's league-leading and franchise-record-tying 60 sacks. 

Robinson previously worked with Rob Leonard, the Raiders’ new defensive coordinator, when the two were on Harbaugh’s Ravens staff in 2022.

Leonard, incidentally, was once a Giants assistant coach, serving as a defensive assistant from 2013 to 2016 on Tom Coughlin’s staff, Leonard’s first NFL coaching job after spending the previous four years on the high school and college levels. 

Leonard was also an assistant defensive line coach and assistant linebackers coach for the Giants in 2017 and 2018, respectively, under Ben McAdoo, who succeeded Coughlin as the team’s head coach, and Pat Shurmur, who followed McAdoo in 2018.

As for the opening on Harbaugh’s staff, it is assumed he’ll look to fill it in the coming days.