Last year, the hiring of Brad Seely as the Oakland Raiders special teams coach, was a quiet coup for Coach Jack Del Rio. That decision paid dividends during the last stretch of the 2015 season, culminating in a fantastic performance against the Broncos in Denver.
Oakland Raiders Special Teams in Midseason Form
Marquette King has been booming punts that are rumored to have grounded air traffic during game time. Sebastian Janikowski converted every field goal opportunity including one from 53 yards. The coverage unit forced two fumbles and pinned opposing teams inside the 20 on all but a few plays. Also, the return unit’s back up players gave the Raiders offense excellent starting field position. It appears the Raiders will have a huge advantage in the field position game going into this season.
Marquette King has come a long way since replacing, probable Hall of Famer, Shane Lechler. Those were big shoes to fill. However, if the preseason is any indicator, they might be starting to feel a bit tight. King capped off a solid preseason in the final game where he averaged 48.9 yards per attempt. That also pinned Seattle inside the 20 in five of his eight attempts.
With King in All-Pro form, and Janikowski converting every field goal opportunity, this unit is firing on all cylinders.
Speaking of Seabass, Seely has lit a fire under the Polish Cannon, who showed up to camp in the best shape than anyone can remember, instead of the 265-270 range, Seabass tipped the scales at 256 pounds.
“I love what I do,” Janikowski said. “I want to bring a championship to this team. That’s my goal.”
Not only that but we got an idea of how Coach Seely is attacking this new kick off rule. For those fans who have been hibernating since last year’s Superbowl, there is a new Kickoff rule. The NFL competition committee changed the kick off touch back placement from the 20 to the 25 yard line. With that in mind Seabass has been landing his kicks right around the goal line. These high arcing kicks have given the coverage unit the time to swarm the opposing team’s return unit to great effect so far.
Last, but not least, we have the special teams return unit. Expect to see Taiwan Jones returning kicks and TJ Carrie returning punts. DeAndre Washington is expected to be the “Next man up” at both positions. Behind him is Johnny Holton at punt return, and Jalen Richard at kick return.
Brad Seely’s special teams unit should be exciting to watch. In this writer’s opinion, that will give the Raiders an edge this season.
