The New Orleans Saints appear to have filled the vacancy left by assistant defensive backs coach Leigh Torrence, with Maryland defensive passing game coordinator and cornerbacks coach Cory Robinson set to join them. News of Robinson’s addition was first reported by AL.com’s Matt Zenitz, which was confirmed by Nick Underhill of NewOrleans.Football.
Torrence left for a higher position with the New York Jets, rejoining defensive coordinator Gregg Williams (who Torrence once played for when they were both with the Saints, back in the early 2010’s). It’s a bit of a surprise that the Saints added someone to replace him this late in the game, but they obviously value having as many eyes as possible on the back end of the defense. He’ll work with secondary coach Aaron Glenn and senior defensive assistant Peter Giunta.
But let’s circle back to Robinson. He joined Maryland coach Michael Locksley’s staff just a year ago, having first worked as the Terps’ director of player personnel back in 2015. Sandwiched in-between were stops at Toledo (2016), Temple (2017), and Rutgers (2018), as cornerbacks coach.
This feels similar to the addition of defensive line coach Ryan Nielsen back in 2017. Like Robinson, Nielsen was a highly-regarded position coach who had earned a promotion to the NFL by successfully recruiting and developing talented athletes. Nielsen has done a great job coaching up inexperienced players like David Onyemata and Marcus Davenport; now, Robinson will get the same opportunity.
The Saints will go into the 2020 season with their coaching staff largely intact. While linebackers coach Mike Nolan was hired away by the Dallas Cowboys as their new defensive coordinator, the Saints made an in-house promotion to elevate Michael Hodges into that spot. With Robinson filling in for Torrence, New Orleans is poised to run it back one more time.
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