The Detroit Lions offensive coordinator search has reached a fifth publicly-known candidate.
According to Ian Rapoport, the Detroit Lions will be hosting former Falcons offensive coordinator Zac Robinson for an in-person interview for the vacancy on Thursday.
Robinson was one of the five primary candidates on our initial 13 OC candidates for the Lions. Here’s what our own Erik Schlitt had to say about Robinson.
Robinson would break into the NFL coaching ranks in 2019 with the Rams and coach Sean McVay. After three seasons as an assistant—including serving as Jared Goff’s assistant QB coach—Robinson was promoted to passing game coordinator and quarterbacks coach in 2022-23, and then left in 2024, following then-Rams’ defensive coordinator Morris to Atlanta to serve as his offensive coordinator.
Known for running a West Coast scheme (similar to the Lions) that adapts to their players and utilizes multiple run blocking schemes, Robinson should be able to adapt to the Lions playbook quickly. His familiarity with Goff also gives him an added layer of familiarity that many others on this list don’t possess.
A former NFL quarterback himself—drafted in the seventh round back in 2010—Robinson’s coaching career only dates back to 2019, when he rubbed elbows with Sean McVay as the Rams’ assistant quarterbacks coach. As pointed out above, he also helped coach Jared Goff, who was the starting quarterback at the time. After jumping to wide receivers coach, back to assistant quarterbacks coach and earning the pass game coordinator title for 2022-23, he went to the Atlanta Falcons to serve as their offensive coordinator for the past two seasons.
In Robinson’s first year as offensive coordinator in Atlanta, he helped produce the 13th-best scoring offense in the league with Kirk Cousins and Michael Penix as his quarterbacks. The offense took a step back this past season —ranking 24th in scoring—but one thing has remained in Robinson’s two years: a steady running game featuring star running back Bijan Robinson. This past year, Robinson put up a league-high 2,298 yards from scrimmage, earning him First-Team All-pro honors.
Zac Robinson, 39, is considered a young, bright mind available this coaching cycle. He has also interviewed for the Buccaneers’ offensive coordinator job earlier this week.
Schlitt also talked about the possibility of adding Robinson in our Pride of Detroit Direct end-of-season mailbag podcast last week:
You can see all of the Lions’ coaching candidates with our 2026 Lions coaching news tracker.
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