The Las Vegas Raiders have perhaps the best placekicker in football: Daniel Carlson. They signed him as a free agent after the Minnesota Vikings selected him out of Auburn in the fifth round (No. 167 overall) of the 2017 National Football League.
After being released by the Vikings in 2018 and signed by the Raiders, Carlson’s career has taken off.
The 6-foot-5, 215-pound Carlson has led the NFL in scoring in two of his six seasons, connecting on 169 of his 192 field goal attempts and 200 of 208 extra points for a total of 707 points.
“Yeah, he is the real deal,” Raiders Coach Jon Gruden said of Carlson early in his career. He was a pretty high draft kick for a placekicker. He had his struggles in Minnesota, but he has found his rhythm here, and hopefully, he is a long-term solution for us.”
Raiders Coach Josh McDaniels said early last season before he was fired: “I mean, I think we have the best kicker in the NFL. And so, to have that feeling week in and week out at practice, you watch him do his job and come to the stadium on game day. You know that if you need a big kick or something else—nobody talks about his placement of the ball on the kickoffs or what he does to try to limit returners and all the rest of it.
“But Daniel is an elite player at his position, and I have tremendous confidence in him regardless of the situation or what has happened in the recent past. We would give him the ball 100 out of 100 times if it was the game on the line.”
While Carlson has been terrific, he still has a long way to catch up with legendary George Blanda, Chris Bahr, Jim Breech, Jeff Jaeger, Mike Mercer, Mike Eischeid, and especially Sebastian Janikowski in the great history of Raiders kickers.
Janikowski, known as ‘‘Seabass,” was selected by the Raiders in the first round (No. 17 overall) of the NFL Draft out of Florida State and became the leading scorer in Silver and Black history.
Seabass made 414 of 515 field goal attempts and 557 of 563 extra point attempts for a total of 1,799 points in his career. He hit eight field goals of 56 yards or longer, including a then-NFL-record-tying 63-yard field goal against the Broncos in Denver in 2011. He kicked more field goals of 50-plus yards than any player in NFL history.
“Janikowski's obvious asset entering the league was his powerful left leg,” it was written on Raiders.com. “The longer he played, the more records fell. Janikowski rewrote the record books and set numerous marks -- team and NFL--– some of which will never be broken. Perhaps his greatest accomplishment is the indelible impression he made on the Raider Nation.”
Surprisingly, Janikowski was selected to the All-Pro team and the Pro Bowl only once in 2011.
The Raiders hope to get nearly what they had overall from Carlson.
The NFL Draft will be held in Detroit, Mich., on April 25-27, 2024. The Las Vegas Raiders currently have the No. 13 overall pick.
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