The Las Vegas Raiders are going all-in on a youth movement after rigid and aging voices derailed the 2025 NFL season. Head coach Klint Kubiak just turned 39, offensive coordinator Andrew Janocko is only 37, and recently-promoted defensive coordinator Rob Leonard is 38. That's a young crew.
Part of the reason the Raiders' brass was enamored with Kubiak was his humility and admission that he didn't have all the answers, but that he'd strive to find them. He made an early step in that direction by hiring the experienced Mike McCoy to serve as his sounding board and assistant head coach.
But that only solves the inexperience issue on the offensive side of the ball. Leonard is a rookie defensive coordinator, too, so he needs an experienced voice in his ear like McCoy. Well, the Raiders found one, as Mike Garafolo reported that Al Holcomb will be hired as a senior defensive assistant.
Raiders hiring longtime coach Al Holcomb as senior defensive assistant
An invisible string exists between these two, as Leonard got his foot in the door as an NFL coach in 2013 as a defensive assistant for the New York Giants. Al Holcomb held that position for two years before taking a job with the Carolina Panthers. So, his move spurred Leonard's start in pro coaching.
Now, Holcomb is Leonard's assistant and de facto mentor.
Holcomb's coaching career began in the college ranks, as he bounced around at various levels from 1995 to 2008, spending time at Temple, Division III Colby College, Division II's Bloomsburg and Kutztown, and Division I Lafayette.
In college, Holcomb held titles such as linebackers coach, defensive backs coach, defensive line coach, defensive coordinator and special teams coordinator. So, just a bit of everything, which is exactly the kind of background needed for a senior defensive assistant role.
By 2009, he was a defensive quality control coach with the Giants under Tom Coughlin and eventually a defensive assistant. He left for a linebackers coach job with the Carolina Panthers in 2013, where he helped continue to develop Pro Football Hall of Fame linebacker Luke Keuchly.
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He performed so well in that role that by 2018, Holcomb was hired as the Arizona Cardinals' defensive coordinator and assistant head coach under Steve Wilks. Now, that defense wasn't great. But he has experience calling plays at the NFL level, so he can help out Leonard in that realm.
After one year in Arizona, the whole staff got fired, so Holcomb took a linebackers coach and run game coordinator job with the Cleveland Browns. In 2020, he rejoined the Panthers staff as a run game coordinator. After two years in that role, he served as the interim DC for Carolina in 2022.
Again, that defense wasn't tremendous, but he was better than he was during his first go-around in 2018. He then joined the Buffalo Bills' staff as a senior defensive assistant for Sean McDermott in 2023 before moving into the linebackers coach role in Buffalo over the last two seasons.
Now, he'll look to use that long catalog of experience to help out Leonard, a first-time defensive coordinator and play-caller, who will surely need the assistance. Holcomb comes to Las Vegas with 31 years of coaching experience, 14 in college and 17 at the NFL level.
Las Vegas doesn't necessarily have an ultra-talented defense as it stands now, but Holcomb's ties around the league could help lure free agents to the Silver and Black. More importantly, he should be a great veteran voice for a young Raiders staff.