When the door on Matt Robinson’s football-playing career slammed shut after a hamstring injury, he decided he’d find a different way to the NFL.

Now in his fifth season as a member of the Ravens coaching staff, and first leading the outside linebackers room, Robinson has earned the respect of the players.

“Matt is one of the smartest coaches I’ve been around,” outside linebacker Tavius Robinson said. “The way he knows X’s and O’s, he puts us in good positions to make plays on game day.”

Tavius Robinson said he has many examples of Matt Robinson setting him up for big plays last season, when Robinson was an assistant defensive line/outside linebackers coach. He said Matt walked him through situations in practice and meetings, so when they showed up in games, he was ready.

Matt Robinson’s journey from playing at Atholton High School in Howard County to the NFL was not a quick one.

After being named to The Baltimore Sun’s first-team All-Metro squad as a receiver and The Washington Post’s first-team All-Met as a linebacker in 2009, he went to the University of Maryland.

At Maryland he played only 39 games in five years as he dealt with a shoulder injury, and he was not drafted afterward. The Jacksonville Jaguars signed him as an undrafted rookie free agent in 2015. However, before his playing career could take off, Robinson suffered a hamstring injury during training camp.

He never played again.

Instead, Robinson found a new path to the league through coaching. He started at Archbishop Spalding High School before transitioning to the University of Connecticut as a defensive graduate assistant in 2017 and 2018.

Robinson returned to his alma mater the year after as a graduate assistant, and in 2020 he was promoted to defensive quality control coach. The Terrapins averaged 2.8 sacks per game that year, second in the Big Ten during the COVID-shortened season.

All the while, he tried as hard as he could to join the Ravens, but he didn’t get any responses.

“While I was at Maryland, I was really trying to get a job here,” Robinson said. “I was trying to contact anyone who would listen and give me an opportunity to come in and put my head down and work.”

Until, at least, his wife stepped in. Dallas Robinson, whom Matt met in 2011, was a cheerleader for the Terrapins alongside Nurit Wilkins, the wife of former Ravens outside linebackers coach Drew Wilkins. The two talked, and the Ravens offered Matt Robinson a position as a coaching fellow in 2021.

It’s been nothing but up from there. In 2023, he was promoted to defensive quality control coach, primarily working with the defensive line.

That year, the Ravens defense became the first in NFL history to lead the league in points allowed, sacks and takeaways. (The team also tied the franchise record in sacks with 60.)

In 2024, Robinson became an assistant defensive line/outside linebackers coach, working with defensive line coach Dennis Johnson and pass rush coach Chuck Smith.

Now he’s been promoted to outside linebackers coach and will continue to work alongside Smith and Johnson.

David Ojabo said Johnson is the expert in the run game, Smith is still the “guru” when it comes to rushing the quarterback and Robinson “finalizes everything” in terms of play design and dropping into coverage.

“He is a cool guy on the field and off the field,” Ojabo said. “He has the ‘mentals.’”