Raiders Get Their Kicks Out of Carlson and Cole
The Las Vegas Raiders have one of the strongest kicking games in the National Football League again this season and barring anything unforeseen, it figures to remain that way for several years.
That’s because placekicker Daniel Carlson is 26-years-old and punter A.J. Cole is only 25.
Coach Jon Gruden is glad to have them both.
“He’s my favorite player,” Gruden said of Carlson. “For a while there, you don’t know your kicker’s name. I know this guy’s name. He’s really making a name for himself. Long-range field goals, different climates, wet ball, high snap, low snap, on the road, cold weather, he has done it all for us. I don’t think he reminds me of anybody. He’s just tall. He’s a long kicker. We are happy we have him. He’s clearly been one of the strengths of this team.
“ … We haven’t seen punts like (Cole’s) since (Shane) Lechler was here, or (Marquette) King. This guy really has a live leg, he can directional punt and he’s our holder for Carlson.”
The Raiders have a strong legacy in the kicking game, as the great Ray Guy is the only true punter in the NFL Hall of Fame, and quarterback-kicker George Blanda also is enshrined at Canton, Ohio.
However, Carlson and Cole are more reminiscent of kicker Sebastian Janikowski and punter Lechler, who both were selected by the Raiders in the 2000 NFL Draft and gave the Silver and Black the best kicking game in the league for the next 12 years.
Janikowski made 414 field goals and 557 extra points to rank as the franchise’s all-time leading scorer with 1,799 points, more than doubling Blanda’s 883, while Lechler averaged 47.5 yards per punt, also the best in Raiders history, for his 13 seasons.
Carlson and Cole seem to be capable of something similar.
The 6-5, 215-pound Carlson was selected by the Minnesota Vikings in the fifth round of the 2018 draft out of Auburn but was cut by the Vikings after he missed three field goals—including two in overtime—against the Green Bay Packers in the second game of his rookie season.
Carlson was signed by the Raiders midway through the season when fellow rookie kicker Matt McCrane was released. Other than a brief slump in his second season, Carlson has been on the money for the Raiders.
In three seasons with the Silver and Black, Carlson has made 54-of-68 field goal attempts (87.2 percent), with a long of 54 yards, and 103-of-107 extra points (96 percent), in addition to having 119 touchbacks on 210 kickoffs.
Last year, he made 33-of-35 field-goal tries and 45-of-47 extra-point attempts, tying for the league-high in points with 144 and breaking Janikowski’s team record of 142 set in 2010.
“He’s a rare talent,” Gruden said. “He’s got a great demeanor about him, never too high, never too low. He has run into some tough times like all kickers do. But I’ve seen great golfers three-putt greens. Nobody is perfect. But he has never lost his confidence.
“This kid is money, a guy I have a lot of confidence in.”
The 6-4, 220-pound Cole signed with the Raiders as an undrafted free agent out of North Carolina State in 2019 and beat out incumbent punter Johnny Townsend during training camp when he was surprised one day when Gruden walked up to him and asked: “Can you do the job?”
After hesitating for a moment, Cole said, “Hell, yeah!”
And he has.
Cole punted 67 times for 3,081 yards (a 46-yard average) as a rookie and followed that up with 44 punts for 1,939 yards (a 44.1-yard average) last season. His longest punt went 74 in 2019, and in two seasons he has pinned opponents inside the 20-yard-line on 53 occasions.
Since Cole is Carlson’s holder, the two have bonded, on and off the field.
“He’s a true professional,” Carlson said of Cole. “It’s nice to be friends with the guys you work with, and we’re just continuing to work on that. … He was training and living in Alabama a couple of hours from me (last offseason), so we were able to drive and meet up and train in Alabama, as well as some in Vegas. We were just doing that smart stuff during COVID.
“So, it’s been nice to kind of have that preparation. Obviously, last offseason was weird, it was a lot different than normal, so we wanted to take measures into our own hands and make sure we were prepared from day one, and continue to build off the relationship we had last year and kind of are continuing this year.”
And probably for seasons to come.
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