It has not taken Rob Leonard very long on the job as defensive coordinator of the Las Vegas Raiders to understand there is no magic wand to fix an NFL defense.
“You can’t improve at everything at the same time, right?” he said before Monday’s practice at the team facility in Henderson. “You can’t walk into a meeting and say, ‘You’ve got to get better at third down, stopping the run, and doing this.’ You just chip away at one thing at a time and that has really been the focus. And I’ve been trying to be consistent about what the focus is for each day. So, today is third down, and that’s what we’re focused on today with our operation and things like that.”
The plan is to be as ready as possible as a group for the season opener against the Dolphins, but the truth is the defense will evolve throughout the season.
It’s his first year calling plays and running a defense, so Leonard has some learning on the job to do, just like his players.
He now has two preseason games under his belt as part of that process.
“It’s been fun,” he said. “You learn something every game.”
Leonard credited his staff for doing a good job of coming together over the course of the games to discuss what everyone is seeing and to do a bit of self-scouting.
Leonard said that process has been going well and is only getting better.
While he was often part of those conversations as a position coach, now he’s the one who has to emerge with the final decisions and act on them.
“We’re in this together,” he said. “The more we continue to jell as a staff, the easier the whole process becomes because you can’t do it yourself.”
Leonard has been impressing his players with his planning and communication.
“It’s coming along good,” cornerback Eric Stokes said of Leonard’s implementation of the defense. “He’s very detailed with everything that he wants, and then even if you get a little confused or whatever, he’s quick to go ahead and stop the meeting, do any little thing, go ahead and make sure everybody is on the same page.
“He wants everybody to be clear with everything to where (there are no misunderstandings), none of that stuff. It’s just everything to where like now it’s a better understanding.”
The improvement could be seen from the first game to the second of the preseason, even with some of the reserves on the field.
Leonard’s defense not only pitched a shutout in the second half against the Houston Texans, but created some chaos and got two turnovers.
They also had better run fits, which had been a huge point of emphasis from the previous week.
It also looked a bit smoother, which was intentional.
“I wanted our play style to improve from game one to game two, and I think we did that,” Leonard said. “Just the focus of what I’m asking these guys to do. Klint (Kubiak) talks all the time about our operation, substitutions, getting in and out of the huddle, a sense of urgency to get lined up, safety rotation, like that’s really been the focus over all of those things, of improving with that.”
Still, the full fury of Leonard’s defensive plan has yet to be unveiled.
While he showed a bit more creativity than the largely vanilla game plan from the first game, Leonard must still fight off the urge to really attack in the way he wants from his defense.
He’s aggressive by nature and wants to prepare his team for the season, but NFL preseason games call for patience to avoid putting too much on film.
There can be a tendency to overthink that balance.
“I’m really just thinking about just improving with the guys,” Leonard said. “You’re really over the scheme right now and you can get into your own head, what to show, what not to show.”
He got to show a bit more of his defense last week in the joint practice against the Texans and while it wasn’t all perfect, Leonard was pleased with how it ended.
“I thought we actually made a lot of improvement,” Leonard said. “And we ended the two-minute period with two picks to win the game.
“You can only emphasize so much, and so ball production has been there up at the top (recently). There are other things to fix as you go along the way, but there’s a progression to it.”
Leonard believes his group is on the right track.
Contact Adam Hill at ahill@reviewjournal.com. Follow @AdamHillLVRJ on X.
