Rob Leonard is a wildcard for the Las Vegas Raiders. While John Spytek added plenty of talent for the first-year defensive coordinator to work with, Leonard has never called plays at the college or NFL level. And for as heralded and as respected as he is, that is a massive question mark for the Raiders.
Fortunately, Leonard has worked with some great defensive minds in his young NFL career. He has inspiration to draw from. But Raiders fans don't know which of those coaches he'll effectively model his defense after. Will it be Patrick Graham's conservative, fairly vanilla, bend-don't-break philosophy?
Or will he get more imaginative and mix things up with a lot of defensive backs on the field like Mike Macdonald, his former employer, did as the coach of the Super Bowl-winning Seattle Seahawks? Las Vegas' major investment in the secondary in the 2026 NFL Draft paints a clear picture of the latter.
A heavy dose of dime and nickel packages should be on the way for the Silver and Black defense.
Las Vegas Raiders should rely on dime and nickel packages after big DB investment in 2026 NFL Draft
While Raider Nation was more focused on the wide receiver and defensive tackle positions in the middle rounds of this year's draft, Las Vegas went all-in on bolstering the defensive backfield. They selected safeties Treydan Stukes and Dalton Johnson and corners Jermod McCoy and Zeke Masses.
This may seem to some like a pure numbers game, with the Raiders just hoping that one or two work out. But they were able to land both quantity and quality in a group of young players who have versatility and varying skill sets. This wasn't a retooling; this was a complete overhaul in Las Vegas.
Seattle put a premium on nickel and dime packages last year en route to hoisting a Lombardi Trophy, which means that they had five or six defensive backs on the field at a given time. Just read the description Thomas Valentine of PFF gave in January about what the Seahawks got done in 2025.
"The Seahawks’ defense is the epitome of a modern NFL defense," Valentine wrote. "It is hard-hitting, excellent against the run and pass, incredibly deep, and most importantly, it can line up however it wants. The Seahawks don’t let offenses decide what package they run. They dictate the game on their own terms. The Seahawks line up almost exclusively in nickel and dime packages, 75.3% and 16.5% of their snaps — and no team is in base formation less than the Seahawks’ defense (6.5%)."
If the Raiders are trying to form their defense in a similar way, and it appears that they are, then that is a dream scenario. Seattle didn't build things overnight, either, so Las Vegas can take its time creating it this way. But the early investment in a crop of great defensive backs is a clear move in this direction.
Las Vegas has hard hitters. They were already very good against the run last year, and they've added to the secondary and gotten better coverage linebackers to improve against the pass. Spytek has done his best to bulk up the depth of the defense.
And with these versatile corners and safeties now on the roster, they can line up however they want.
Now, some may be concerned about the team's ability to make tackles and stack up well against the run with a bunch of defensive backs on the field. But the Raiders made sure to nab secondary players who could tackle as well. Valentine continued with what made the Seattle defense so great.
"Mike Macdonald’s unit has been historically good in 2025. Its 84.8 PFF grade is third among all defenses, and they rank second in EPA per play and third in success rate. It also leads the league with an 89.8 PFF coverage grade. The Seahawks' greatness comes from the fact that they don’t do anything too much. They blitz at one of the lowest rates in the NFL, they run simulated pressures on 19.7% of their passing down snaps — 14th in the NFL — but continuously win with four up front and pressure opposing quarterbacks 41.6% of their dropbacks, the fifth-highest rate.
"Even in coverage, the Seahawks are multiple in their looks, running Cover 3, Cover 6, Quarters, Cover 1 and Cover 2 at rates of 10.0% or higher. By definition, they’re a team that has the answers to all of the tests."
Obviously, it is much easier said than done to replicate a Super Bowl-winning defense. That Seahawks team was loaded at all three levels, ridiculously deep and coached by one of the game's mastermind defensive play-callers. It is an uphill climb to even be in the same breath as them.
But Las Vegas putting such a premium on landing great secondary players in the draft and ignoring the linebacker position and a true nose tackle solution would indicate that they aren't planning on spending much time in their base 3-4 defense. They want to run nickel and dime packages.
With versatile pieces like Stukes, Johnson, Jeremy Chinn, Isaiah Pola-Mao and even a great coverage linebacker like Nakobe Dean, the Raiders can keep their opponents on their toes. They can mix and match and move the pieces around however they see fit, or however the offense doesn't see coming.
Clearly, spending a lot of time in five or six-defensive-back packages paid dividends for Seattle's defense; Klint Kubiak saw that firsthand. Although fans will have to see it play out on the field, and Las Vegas will have to determine if it is ready for it, it seems like the Raiders are at least angling that way.
And it is a great move. After years of Graham's defense being unimaginative, which didn't lead to great results, it is smart for the Silver and Black to finally modernize their defense. It is all coming into focus after Las Vegas wagered so much on the secondary in this year's draft.
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