Raiders Leavitt Makes a Special Play

Las Vegas Raiders Dallin Leavitt is making plays on special teams, but is that enough to make the roster?

Safety Dallin Leavitt has been on and off the Las Vegas Raiders active roster since they signed him as a free agent out of Utah State in 2018, mostly because he is very good on special teams.

The 5-10, 195-pound Leavitt showed on Saturday night that he also can play some defense when he broke up a two-point conversion pass intended for 6-5, 220-pound tight end Jacob Harris of the Los Angeles Rams to clinch a 17-16 victory for the Raiders.

Of course, one play earlier Harris beat Leavitt for a two-yard touchdown pass with 15 seconds left that gave the Rams a chance to win the game, and a week earlier Leavitt missed a tackle that gave the Seattle Seahawks their only touchdown in a 20-7 victory by the Raiders.

But the 27-year-old Leavitt has his supporters on the Raiders.

“I told him, ‘I want you to disguise everything,” quarterback Derek Carr said of Leavitt. “I don’t want to know what the coverage is at all when you’re out there.’ He does a great job of it and confuses you and likes to mess with you.

“Just having a guy like that, (he) won’t get press credit and get enough credit, but him doing that for me and for our team, that only makes him better, but also makes our team better. That’s invaluable to me. To be able to have a guy to say, ‘Whatever you need, Derek, and whatever the team needs.’ He’s like that 100 percent. It’s no surprise why he made it.”

Leavitt has only two passes defended in the 26 games he has played for the Raiders in his first three seasons, but when he has been on the active roster, he is on the field in almost every special teams situation. He averaged 23 plays in the nine games he was active for last season, after playing in 15 contests in 2019.

That means both blocking and tackling, and Leavitt has made a total of 20 tackles in 24 games the last two seasons in his limited, under-appreciated role.

And there is another guy who appreciates him.

“We got a lot of calls on Leavitt in the last year and a half or so,” Coach Jon Gruden said. “He's a great special teams player. It starts right there. You put the special teams tape on, which few people do these days, Leavitt shows up big time.

“He’s (also) developed into a real versatile safety. He can play free or strong. He can play in the post or in the box. He’s a good tackler. He made three great open field tackles the other night. He’s just getting started. We don’t want to lose him.”

Added Carr of Leavitt’s special teams play: “He’s taken on two guys, spinning off them, making a tackle, and he’s taken on three guys and spinning off them, and threw somebody and made a tackle. He’s forcing people out of bounds. He’s taken people out of their lanes. Just his all-around effort and understanding of the scheme really on special teams is what really did it.”

Leavitt was an Eagle Scout while playing at Central Catholic High School in Portland, Ore., and credits his defensive coach, Anthony Newman, for helping develop the talent that brought him first-team All-State and Oregon 6A co-Defensive Player of the Year honors as a senior.

It also earned Leavitt a scholarship to BYU, where he played for two seasons before he transferred to Utah State.

In 45 college games at both schools, Leavitt started 26 times and had a total of 211 tackles, seven interceptions, eight passes defended, and two sacks. As a senior for the Aggies, he made 94 tackles, four interceptions, and five passes defended and was named honorable mention All-Mountain West Conference.

Leavitt is used to being overlooked, but that only inspires him.

“I’m the dude nobody talks about, nobody sees, nobody cares about,” said Leavitt, who signed a one-year contract extension with the Raiders in March. “Then you turn on the film and it’s, ‘Who’s that?

“My dad played linebacker (at BYU), so when it comes to physicality, the tackling, the hand placement, I knew all that because Pops taught me growing up. But when it came to the coverage part, the route concepts, my eyes, that’s where Coach Newman helped me take those first steps.”

And Leavitt is hoping that one big play on television Saturday night might make people remember him, and also help him stick with the Raiders again.

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