The Las Vegas Raiders are rebuilding their defense from the framework out. New coordinator Rob Leonard is installing a 3-4 base, a switch head coach Klint Kubiak announced at the NFL Combine and one that has reshaped how Las Vegas evaluated personnel all offseason as it heads into Kubiak’s first training camp.
Leonard, promoted from run-game coordinator and defensive line coach, is entering his fourth season with the organization and his first calling the defense. He has said he wants a “player-led defense,” built from what he absorbed working under coordinators including Mike Macdonald, Brian Flores and Steve Spagnuolo. The move away from the 4-3 the Raiders ran a year ago is, by his own framing, a full identity change rather than a tweak.
It is also a bet that carries real cost. A 3-4 lives on a true nose tackle able to absorb double teams and on four linebackers rather than three — and the Raiders retooled that linebacker room this offseason precisely because the personnel to run the scheme was not already on hand. Las Vegas fielded one of the league’s worst defenses a year ago, so the appetite for a reset is understandable; the risk is asking a roster to learn a new front while still filling the positions that front demands.
The pieces the Raiders do have will define how quickly it takes. Veteran linebacker Devin White, whose range and downhill pressure fit what Leonard wants his second level to do, is among the players the new staff is counting on to give the scheme an early spine.
Rookies reported July 23 ahead of camp’s July 29 start, and the first practices will be the first real test of whether the personnel matches the blueprint. Kubiak has committed to the change; the roster now has a summer to prove it fits.
