Dermot Lavelle
 | This article is pending review by an Approver on the wiki team. Do not award TPE yet. |
Lavelle returning a kick during S8 | |||||||||||||
| No. 40 – Yellowknife Wraiths | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Position: | Cornerback | ||||||||||||
| Personal information | |||||||||||||
| Born: | August 26, 1994 (aged 68) Castlebar, Ireland | ||||||||||||
| Height: | 6 ft 0 in (1.83 m) | ||||||||||||
| Weight: | 205 lb (93 kg) | ||||||||||||
| Career information | |||||||||||||
| College: | University of Arizona | ||||||||||||
| ISFL Draft: | 2017 / Round: 1 / Pick: 1 | ||||||||||||
| Career history | |||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||
| Roster status: | Active | ||||||||||||
| Career highlights and awards | |||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||
| Career NSFL statistics as of Week 17, 2023 | |||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||
Dermot Lavelle (born August 26, 1994) is an American football cornerback for the Yellowknife Wraiths of the National Simulation Football League (NSFL). He played college football for the University of Arizona Wildcats before entering the professional ranks in 2016 as a waiver player before going on to be drafted first overall in the 2017 ISFL Draft (S2) by the Yellowknife Wraiths. Lavelle has been invited to the NSFL Pro Bowl in each of his eight seasons in the NSFL, and is widely considered to be one of the best cornerbacks in the league.
Contents
Early years
Lavelle was born in Castlebar, Ireland on August 26th 1994. He spent the entirety of his childhood and majority of his teens living in the west of Ireland and predominately played soccer growing up as a youth.
College career
Lavelle attended University of Arizona, where he played for Rich Rodriguez's UAZ football team from 2015 - 2016.
Senior Year
Lavelle played all 13 games of Arizona's 7 - 6 record season and managed to consistently perform from both the CB and FS spot despite his lack of experience at the collegiate level. Lavelle finished his first and final season at Arizona with 4 interceptions , 18 pass deflections and 1 defensive touchdown.
College career statistics
| Career statistics | Tackles | Sacks | Interceptions | Other | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Season | Team | Games | Reg | TFL | Total | Sack | Int | IntTD | DefTD | FFum | FRec | PD | Safety |
| 2015 | AZ | 13 | 41 | 6 | 47 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 18 | 0 |
Professional career
Coming out of UAZ in 2016, Lavelle was a projected second round pick by NFL draft experts and scouts. Many had compared his current ability and ceiling to Miami Doplhins starting cornerback Xavien Howard who would later go on to be drafted 38th overall in the second round of the 2016 NFL Draft. However just a month prior to to the 2016 NFL Draft, rumors began to circulate about Lavelle's work ethic and commitment to the game. Allegations regarding performance enhancing substances supposedly used during his time on the Wildcats during the 2016 NCAA season were constantly on the lips of the media, these claims were reported from former teammates of Lavelle during his time in Arizona. Three weeks prior to the draft, Lavelle suffered an apparent fractured clavicle injury according to his camp and had to pull out of the 2016 NFL Draft, worth noting is that these claims were never actually confirmed by any medical professional outside of Lavelle's circle.
48 days after the 2016 NFL Draft, the inaugural S1 NSFL Draft was televised and many had speculated about Lavelle's intention to declare. However despite Lavelle's social media campaign praising the NSFL and expressing his willingness to declare for the S1 Draft, no formal paper work was submitted. Lavelle later blamed his agent at the time for the mistake, despite this Lavelle declared for the S2 NSFL Draft and entered S1 as the leagues first ever waiver player.
Lavelle competed in all 7 aspects of the NSFL combine and scored very well among a cornerbacks class at the time which included Marc Spector, Tyler Oles , Darnell Turner and Rafael Reyes. Lavelle score the joint highest among cornerbacks in the Wonderlic with a score of 40, Turner also scored 40. Lavelle was also the strongest cornerback, amassing a total of 20 reps on the bench press while also recording the best 3 cone drill time (6.84) of the entire S2 NSFL Draft class which at the time was the 8th quickest all time.
| Ht | Wt | Arm length | 40‑yd dash | 20‑ss | 3‑cone | Vert jump | Broad | BP | Wonderlic |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6 ft 0 in (1.83 m) |
205 lb (93 kg) |
34+5⁄8 in (0.88 m) |
4.40 s | 4.18 s | 6.84 s | 31.7 in (0.81 m) |
130 ft .2 in (39.63 m) |
20 reps | 40 |
2016
On June 4th 2016, the Yellowknife Wraiths signed Lavelle to a 1 year $2,000,000 waiver contract which would expire at the end of the 2016 season.
Professional career statistics
| Career statistics | Tackles | Sacks | Interceptions | Other | Kick Returns | Punt Returns | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Season | Team | Games | Reg | TFL | Total | Sack | Int | IntTD | DefTD | FFum | FRec | PD | Safety | Yds | Avg | KR TD | Yds | Avg | PR TD |
| 2016 (S1) | BAL | 14 | 77 | 0 | 77 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Achievements and Records
Awards
- Team
- NSFC Champion (2): 2017 (S2), 2018 (S3)
- ASFC Champion (2): 2019 (S4), 2020 (S5)
- Individual
- NSFL Defensive Player of the Year: 2021
- NSFL Pro Bowl Selection (3): 2017 , 2018 , 2019
NSFL records
- 2017; Set new NSFL record for most kick return yards in a season (823 yards)
Yellowknife Wraiths franchise records
- 2018; Set BAL franchise record for most punt return yards in a season (429 yards)
