Robert Blanton, a six-year NFL veteran in the playing ranks, enters his second season as assistant defensive backs coach for the Saints and his seventh season as a coach.
In 2025, Blanton assisted the defensive backs in finishing with a top five passing defense, allowing only 179.2 net passing yards per game. The group also helped lead New Orleans to allow the ninth-fewest yards per game in the NFL.
During a five-year tenure at Miami (Ohio) prior to joining the Saints in 2025, including serving as the defensive pass game coordinator and safeties coach in 2024, five of Blanton's players earned All-Mid American Conference honors. In 2024, Miami rebounded from a 1-4 start to finish 9-5, securing their first bowl victory since 2021. Blanton was part of a defensive staff that finished third in the MAC in scoring defense (18.8), total defense (331.4), rushing defense (137.1) and pass defense (194.3). The RedHawks were the top red zone defense in the conference and forced 23 turnovers. Sophomore DB Raion Strader, a consensus Freshman All-American in 2023, earned first-team All-MAC honors after recording 53 tackles, two interceptions and a team-high 18 pass breakups. Redshirt senior DB Eli Blakey was named Miami's Defensive Most Improved Player of the Year and earned third-team All-MAC recognition, leading the team with 89 tackles while adding one interception and two pass breakups.
Under Blanton's guidance in 2023, Yahsyn McKee earned second-team All-MAC and Strader was the first freshman All-American at Miami since Ben Roethlisberger garnered the same attention in 2001. Blanton was part of a defensive coaching staff that helped the RedHawks rank eighth nationally in scoring defense (15.9) and allowed just 86 points in eight conference games (10.8/game), the fewest allowed in MAC play since 2000.
In his first year, several defensive backs had breakout years. John Saunders Jr. earned third-team All-MAC, recording a team-high ten pass breakups. McKee was second (six).
Blanton, who had a six-year NFL career with the Minnesota Vikings and Buffalo Bills as a safety and special teams standout, came to Oxford after spending two years as the defensive backs coach at Benilde St. Margaret's High School in St. Louis Park, Minn.
Blanton's NFL playing career began as a fifth round (139th overall) selection by the Minnesota Vikings in the 2012 NFL Draft. He was with the Vikings from 2012-15 and also spent time with the Buffalo Bills in 2016 and 2017. Blanton, who was a team captain for both the Vikings and Bills, played in 72 career regular season games with 19 starts and recorded 220 tackles (151 solo), one interception, five pass breakups, one fumble recovery and 39 coverage stops. His most productive year came in 2014, leading Minnesota with a career-high 111 stops (76 solo), while he added a career-best two takeaways and two coverage stops. In 2023, Blanton showed his interest in coaching in the NFL by participating in the Vikings Diversity Coaching Summit. He also received his first on-field experience that summer, taking advantage of a Bill Walsh minority coaching internship with the Los Angeles Chargers, where Saints Defensive Coordinator Brandon Staley was head coach and Head Coach Kellen Moore was offensive coordinator.
Blanton, a four-year member of the Fighting Irish football team from 2008-11, where he recorded 193 tackles (124 solo), two sacks, eight interceptions, 16 pass breakups and one fumble recovery, graduated from Notre Dame with a business degree in 2012 and completed his MBA in finance from the University of Miami (Fla.) in 2016. In January, Blanton coached the secondary for the American Team at the Panini Senior Bowl.
PLAYING CAREER: Notre Dame, 2008-11; Minnesota Vikings, 2012-15, Buffalo Bills, 2016-17.
COACHING CAREER: Benilde St. Margaret's (St. Louis Park, Minn.) High School, 2020-21; Miami (Ohio), 2022-24; New Orleans Saints, 2025-.
