Dallin Leavitt Leaps at Opportunity to Join Rich Bisaccia, Packers

“Rich (Bisaccia) helped me become such a better player because he expects so much more than maybe we expect of ourselves,” Packers safety Dallin Leavitt said.

Author:
Bill Huber
Publish date:
Jul 29, 2022 11:22 PM EDT

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Green Bay Packers

GREEN BAY, Wis. – On July 20, just as players were arriving for the start of training camp in Las Vegas, safety and special teams standout Dallin Leavitt was released by the Raiders.

“My agent was like, ‘Don’t worry, I’ll figure something out.’ We figured it out,” Leavitt said of he and Kyle Strongin.

A few days later, Leavitt signed with the Green Bay Packers. It was an easy decision for Leavitt, who had spent his first four NFL seasons alongside Green Bay’s new special teams coordinator, Rich Bisaccia.

“First thing’s first, I wanted to play with these guys,” Leavitt said after Friday’s practice, one in which he was with the No. 1 units on kickoff and kickoff return. “It’s an incredible locker room. Talking to guys around the league, you understand the community and the culture here. Just wanted to be a part of it. Just wanted to win. I was excited to be out here and try to help in any way I can.”

The Packers are excited to have him. This isn’t just one of those roster-filling sorts of moves that teams across the NFL make every July. The Packers gave him an $85,000 signing bonus, signaling they expect him to make the roster and contribute.

Bisaccia’s history with Leavitt was a big factor.

“Obviously, he had pretty good knowledge of some of the guys that were with the Raiders,” general manager Brian Gutekunst said. “Whenever we’re bringing in a new coach, we’re going to go through the roster with those guys and find out information about what they thought about the players there. Obviously, Dallin has been a pretty elite special teams player there for a few years, so certainly [Bisaccia] was excited to get him in the building.”

With the Raiders, Leavitt went from undrafted free agent out of Utah State in 2018 to a stalwart on Bisaccia’s special teams. Last season, he led the team with 12 tackles on the kick-coverage units. Moreover, the two formed a tight bond. While with the Raiders, Leavitt said he’d “run through a wall” for the venerable coordinator, who was popular across the roster because of his tough-love approach and passion for the game.

Why was he so beloved with the Raiders, and how does that translate to fixing Green Bay’s chronically awful special teams?

“Rich helped me become such a better player because he expects so much more than maybe we expect of ourselves,” Leavitt said. “Especially as rookies and young players, you’re wide-eyed and not sure what the NFL is going to be like and where you’re going to fit in. I was undrafted. I didn’t understand what my role would be, and Rich did a great job of helping direct me as a person and a player.

“Off the field, anyone who spends significant time around him knows how much he cares about them individually. He cares about your family; he cares about my wife and my baby. They came out here when I signed. When I was busy, he was with them. He cares about us. He cares about us as players. He wants what’s best for us on the field and off.”

Leavitt is more than just a player to help on special teams. Last season, his fourth in the NFL, he made his first NFL start at safety and played 249 defensive snaps. That’s 249 more defensive snaps than the rest of the players battling to be the backups to starters Darnell Savage and Adrian Amos.

But at least the likes of Shawn Davis, Vernon Scott and rookie Tariq Carpenter have been in Green Bay and know the system. The late arrival has Leavitt in catch-up mode, at least as far as learning the defense.

“One of the best parts of my game is my mental,” Leavitt said when asked how he catches up. “There’s some carryover to some of the things that Joe B. [Barry, the defensive coordinator] has us doing that I’ve been a part of in the past, so I have some similar understanding. It’s a grind. You’ve got to stay in the book. We’re here all day and then go home and I’m in the book at night and go to bed.”

While Leavitt might not know the defense, he knows Bisaccia’s schemes – and, just as importantly, how he wants them run – like the back of his hand.

That doesn’t mean he’s coming here to be an assistant coach. Being a leader is earned, not assumed, he said.

“I don’t want to be anything that I’m not. I’m just going to come in and be who I am,” Leavitt said. “I do see myself as a passionate, vocal player, and I do understand the system. I hope that the guys feel comfortable enough. I think you earn that comfortability or that trust from your teammates from them seeing me put in the work every day. It has to be over time, right? You can’t just walk in and they say, ‘Oh, he’s done it before. I’m going to listen to everything he says.’ That’s not the case. I just hope that my work and my efforts allow me to earn trust from my teammates so that if they do have questions about the system or how things run, I’m able to help.”