Packers Sign S Dallin Leavitt who brings Special Teams Experience
By Paul Bretl
With an open roster spot after recently releasing Eli Wolf just days before training camp begins, the Green Bay Packers announced that they signed safety Dallin Leavitt.
What to know about newest Packers safety Dallin Leavitt.
Leavitt went undrafted in 2018 out of Utah State and has spent his entire career with the Raiders up to this point. His experience on defense has been limited, but he has been a core special teams player, playing under Rich Bisaccia the last few seasons.
Leavitt has 376 career snaps on defense with 255 coming this past season. He totaled 25 tackles and allowed 14 completions on 20 targets at 9.8 yards per catch with three pass breakups. The bulk of his snaps have come as a free safety—although Leavitt does have some experience in the box, according to PFF ($$).
The Packers do have some question marks at the safety position after Adrian Amos and Darnell Savage. Right now, there is a lack of experience on this roster behind those two with Vernon Scott leading the way with 90 career snaps, all of which came in 2020. For what it’s worth, based on playing time during OTAs and minicamp, it appears that Shawn Davis may be the front-runner for that third safety role.
Now, I’ve said all of that to say this, if Leavitt were to make the team, in all likelihood, he isn’t going to see playing time on defense—or at least not that much. However, he could be a core special teams player, and that will be his most likely path to making the initial 53-man—where again, there are questions around the depth of the safety position, and special teams will play a factor in determining who stays and who goes.
As I alluded to, Leavitt is an experienced special teams contributor with 854 career snaps, and he led Las Vegas in special teams tackles last season. He has also played a variety of roles, from kick and punt coverage to the return units and on the field goal block unit as well.
Leavitt is the latest addition showcasing that Bisaccia has his fingerprints on this Green Bay Packers offseason.
During free agency, the Packers signed Pat O’Donnell, someone who Bisaccia has admired throughout his career. Keisean Nixon was another core special teams player under Bisaccia in Las Vegas. We also saw the Packers select several players in the draft who could potentially contribute right away.
Competing with Leavitt at the safety position for a roster spot will be the aforementioned Davis and Scott, along with Tre Sterling, Innis Gaines, and Tariq Carpenter.