Raiders 2025: Marcus Robertson’s, Joe Woods’ coaching ability vital for secondary

Pair of veteran defensive backs coaches key to shaping up young defensive backs group in Las Vegas

With the oldest cornerback and safety being 27 and 29 years old, respectively, the Las Vegas Raiders secondary is a young group overall.

It’s a group of 12 defensive backs that are 25 years of age and under and the unit in total numbers 17. Of course, that sum will dwindle in due time. The Silver & Black’s roster, like the other 31 teams in the NFL, are at the bloated 90-man limit. Come cut-down day to the 53-man roster, swaths of released and waived players will hit the open market.

But the timespan between that fateful day and offseason workouts and training camp in mid-July, we’ll get to see just how vital defensive backs coach Marcus Robertson and pass game coordinator/defensive backs coach Joe Woods are to the secondary.

Both didn’t need a sell job on the Raiders’ mystique as Robertson and Woods are no stranger to being on the Silver & Black coaching staff. Both spent time with the Oakland variant — Robertson from 2015-16 and Woods in 2014 — and their respective paths have crossed three separate times amongst a trio of different teams. Most recently, the duo of Robertson and Woods were the New Orleans Saints defensive backs and defensive coordinator, respectively, from 2023-24.

Now, they’re back together on head coach Pete Carroll’s coaching staff to coach and develop Las Vegas’ secondary.

“I believe I’ve got a vast knowledge of the game. I also think my 12 years of experience being on the grass has played a very vital part in not only my relationship with players but getting them to understand and see things and feel things,” Robertson told Raiders.com during a Q&A session back in April. “I try to do the best I possibly can not to put our players in positions where I myself would be uncomfortable. I’ve seen a ton of football. I’ve played a ton of football. I always tell my players, you’re going to learn to trust me. For me, alignment, assignment, technique, finish, all those types of things. I think over a period of time if you continue to rep them, they become like second nature. No different from a guy getting up every day and driving to work.”

“It’s really just knowledge,” Woods said in a similar team Q&A back in April. “I mean, with every team you’ve been on, with every different type of guy you coach, with every system that you’ve been in, the game experiences, the adjustments you had to make, your personal interactions and dealings with different players, I just feel like you grow. You get more experience and you know how to handle different situations based on things you’ve dealt with in the past.”

Having the experience and knowledge is one thing. Being able to impart that onto players under your charge for tangible development and growth is a whole different beast. And how well Robertson and Woods do that, to help cornerbacks and safeties not only learn the scheme that Carroll and defensive coordinator Patrick Graham are installing this offseason, but to have success in it over the course of the 2025 year and beyond, is paramount.

Veteran safeties Jeremy Chinn (heading into his sixth season in the NFL at age 27) and Isaiah Pola-Mao (heading into his fourth year at age 25) along with veteran cornerbacks Jakorian Bennett (heading in his third season at age 24), Eric Stokes (fifth year at age 26), and Darnay Holmes (sixth year, age 26) are being leaned upon to pace a group that features intriguing young talent.

For example, the Raiders drafted Darien Porter (24 years old) in the third round of the 2025 NFL Draft and also have last year’s fourth-round pick Decamerion Richardson (24) in tow. There’s also undrafted free agent (but ballhawk) Mello Dotson at the position group. Flip to safety, there’s second-year players Thomas Harper (24) and Trey Taylor (24) with veteran Lonnie Johnson Jr. (29) also in the group.

“It’s a lot of competition, but that’s what’s going to make everybody better,” Bennett said after Las Vegas’ mandatory minicamp sessions last Tuesday. “We got Stokes, D-Cam, DP (Darien Porter), Kyu (Blu Kelly), Sam (Webb), all them boys, everybody’s good, everybody’s nice. So it makes you have to go out here when you on the practice field to just give it all you got and just leave it out on the field.”

Maximizing the return on investment in drafted players, undrafted free agents, and veteran free agents is going to be a solid test of Robertson’s and Woods’ career progression.

Carroll harkens about open competition for his roster and we’re likely going to see quite the flux as players get looks and snaps as the Raiders embark on finding the best 53 to fill the regular-season roster, along with practice squad candidates.

It’s a triple whammy, really, when it comes to Robertson, Woods, and Carroll. All three have deep experience developing secondaries and when the 73-year-old head coach who has cut his teeth in the NFL 31 years gives you nuggets of wisdom, you take it.

“I’ve never had a head coach really hands on with the DBs, so it’s different for me,” Pola-Mao said of Carroll after the team’s session last Wednesday. “But I love it. And at the same time, Pete’s legendary. Learning from him, he’s seen it and he’s done it, so he knows what it’s supposed to look like. I’m just learning, listening and trying to take it all in.”

Pola-Mao, who is expected to either earn one of the starting safety spots or get substantial snaps, is tag teaming with Chinn to be the experienced backend defenders of the group. Both Chinn and Pola-Moa give the Raiders two tall and big safeties at 6-foot-3 and 220 pounds and 6-foot-4 and 205 pounds, respectively. And the latter, an undrafted free agent out of USC, is glad to have the former in the defensive backfield.

“Like I take pride in knowing exactly where everybody’s supposed to be and I try to put everybody in the right position, make sure everybody’s on the same page,” Pola-Mao said. “So, I think a little bit of a vocal leader, but I also give that to Chinn because he’s going to be more of the guy that’s getting everybody hyped up and we’re going to kind of follow his lead.”

The Raiders have several starting spots up for grabs not only in the secondary, but across the roster. And coaches like Robertson and Woods will have a big hand in determining the starters.

The results will, eventually, speak for themselves — for better or worse.