Even after the Las Vegas Raiders filled out their initial 53-man roster at the end of training camp, John Spytek and Klint Kubiak weren’t done making one last tweak. The Raiders picked up cornerback Darrell Luter Jr. from the San Francisco 49ers off the waiver wire, who drew the most interest on the wire with four other teams putting a claim in on him, according to ESPN’s Field Yates.
Luter is expected to serve as a backup corner and special teamer on the Raiders’ roster. He was a key specialist in
San Francisco, recording over 500 career snaps on special teams over the last three years by contributing to every unit except for the field goal/PAT kicking team, according to Pro Football Focus. Last season, the 2023 fifth-round pick recorded six total tackles and earned a 68.9 special teams grade.
Defensively, the four-year pro doesn’t have much regular-season experience with 342 career snaps, 275 of them and all three of his career starts coming last season. He was targeted 18 times in 2025 and yielded 12 catches for 162 yards and two touchdowns with one PBU, per PFF.
However, Luter drew interest with a strong performance in the preseason this summer, allowing just two catches for 18 yards and no touchdowns (one PBU) on seven targets, per PFF. With that in mind, let’s dive into the last three games and see what the veteran corner can bring to Las Vegas’ defense.
I’ll dive deeper into a few of the reps, but above is a look at every time Luter was targeted during the 2026 preseason. If you’re keeping score at home, there are eight plays up there. The discrepency in the targets appears to be that PFF has the linebacker drawing the target on Fernando Mendoza’s interception above.
The biggest area of improvement that stands out is his change of direction, as he often has a hitch in his transitions and struggles to drive on routes. However, the Southern Alabama product has decent ball skills and can be effective in press coverage, which lines up with Lance Zierlein of NFL.com’s scouting report when Luter was a draft prospect.
“Long-limbed (32 3/8-inch arms) press-cover cornerback with the ball skills and physicality to challenge receivers outside the numbers,” Zierlein wrote. “Luter can be a little leggy in his transitions and burst to the football, but his length helps make up for that and creates pass breakups. Louisiana-Monroe attacked him with back-shoulder throws all game, which is something to keep an eye on in the pros. He’s going to be more effective in press-and-shadow coverage than he is playing Cover 3 or off-man. His ball production dipped in 2022, but his length and playing style fit the NFL game.”
For the record, the former Jaguar had four interceptions and 10 passes defended in 2021 before racking up one pick and seven PDs in 2022.
This rep provides a 1,000-foot view of Luter’s strengths and weaknesses.
He’s playing off-coverage and is isolated against the single receiver in the three-by-one formation. The wideout runs an out route, and the corner does a good job of staying on top of it. Then, the latter has a hitch when trying to drive on the route, which prevents him from being in position to make a play on the ball as it arrives. However, he does have enough speed to get back in the picture after the receiver bobbles the catch, allowing Luter to play the wideout’s hands and prevent the completion.
So, the change-of-direction skills are subpar to give his man an opportunity to make the catch. But Luter’s straight-line speed and long arms allow him to take advantage of a mistake and end up winning the rep. For those curious, he ran a 4.46-second 40-yard dash at the NFL Combine three years ago.
As Zierlein noted, Luter is at his best in press coverage, and this is a good example of what he can do when he gets his hands on receivers.
Luter starts the play as if he’s in soft-shoe coverage (press without a jam) but times up his jam/punch to make contact about four yards into the five-yard window. That’s a good change-up because it can catch wide receivers off-guard, where they’re thinking that they won’t have to deal with any physicality since there was no jam at the line of scrimmage.
Additionally, that disrupts the timing of the route, and the corner does a good job of squeezing the wideout toward the sideline to give the quarterback less room to complete the pass to the go route. From there, Luter is in-phase throughout the route, staying in the receiver’s hip pocket. So, he can turn his head to locate the ball in the air and make a play on it instead of nearly overrunning the under throw.
But, at the end of the day, Luter has tight coverage and does his job by breaking up the pass. Just with his backside instead of his hands!
You might remember watching this rep during the preseason, as Luter makes a nice play against his new teammates Malik Benson and Fernando Mendoza.
This rep is pretty similar to the last one, only he stays in soft-shoe coverage against the go/fade route this time. Also, he does a better job of turning his head to find the ball in the air to be in perfect position to defend against the back-shoulder throw. Those long arms come in handy at the catch point, as he’s able to come up with a PBU to finish the rep and put the Raiders in a third-and-long situation.
The fourth-year pro is also a pretty good tackler, which is another area where his long arms come into play, and the clip above is a great example.
It looks like the 49ers are running Cover 3 with pattern matching principles since both corners have their eyes on the wide receivers they’re lined up across from, while the underneath defenders fall into their zones post-snap. Meanwhile, the Raiders have a good play design where the receiver lined up across from Luter runs a crossing route to get the corner out of position to defend the screen.
However, Luter recognizes the play design and crashes downhill. He does benefit from left tackle Kolton Miller eyeing the linebackers and being late to see the corner outside. But Luter’s speed and long arms allow him to take advantage by using a good angle and laying out to trip up Michael Mayer for a one-yard gain.
That’s a heads-up play, in addition to the speed and tackling skills.
We’ll wrap up here with a nice play in run support, which is a big part of Luter’s game. For example, he posted an 82.0 PFF run defense grade during the regular season last year, and has had marks of 81.4 and 81.6 during the last two respective preseasons.
He’s in off coverage in the boundary, as it appears that San Francisco had either Cover 1 or 3 called out of a two-high look pre-snap, meaning the boundary safety rotates down into the box. Once Luter recognizes the receiver he’s lined up across from goes to crack block said safety, he transitions downhill and starts pursuing to the football.
The corner’s speed becomes a factor, again, allowing him to make a clean-up tackle for a one-yard gain after the linebacker missed. This may not seem like much, but it’s excellent run support from a defensive back who started the play about nine yards away from the line of scrimmage. If Luter isn’t there, this is at least a gain that puts the offense ahead of schedule and might even be a first down.
It will be interesting to see what the coaching staff’s plan is for the waiver wire pickup. His subpar change of direction and short-area quickness can create some issues in coverage, but he does have intriguing natural gifts with his arm length, speed and press coverage skills. Luter doesn’t have much experience playing either of these positions, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he gets a shot at nickel and/or safety with how good of a tackler he is. Of course, all of this is in addition to what he brings on special teams.
