Now that we are about halfway through the regular season, it is time to start considering which players are deserving of the Pro Bowl. For this series, we will look at the three most deserving candidates for each team. From how it’s looking so far, the Oakland Raiders will have more than three players voted in this season, and those players won’t be ignored. Here are the three that should get the most votes.
Top Midseason Oakland Raiders Pro Bowl Candidates
Marquette King
This is not a list of the top three players of the Oakland Raiders. The players to be mentioned are some of the top Raiders players, but they are not necessarily the top three. What needs to be considered for who deserves to go to the Pro Bowl, is where these players rank among their peers all over the NFL, not just on the team. This first selection was the easiest of them all.
Marquette King is the best punter in the NFL. There can be a debate for others, but when it’s all added up, King is head and shoulders over the rest of the crowd. After the Raiders win over the Baltimore Ravens, Pro Football Focus (PFF) announced that in over ten years of their grading, no one earned a higher grade than Marquette King in that game.
The skill he possess with his leg is unmatched by anyone in the league. He has the strongest leg in the league, and has a 72 yard punt to prove that. He’s booted the football from his own end zone many times this year, and somehow still succeeds in pinning the returner inside his 30, and sometimes even farther back than that. He has better ball placement than any other punter, and his 19 punts inside the 20 prove that. And along with all that, he’s actually a former wide receiver, so is extremely athletic, fast and agile for a punter. He got the chance to display his speed after a botched snap, which King quickly turned into a 27 yard run for a first down. It is absolutely unreal how the Raiders have been able to acquire so many great punters. Ray Guy and Shane Lechler were both considered the best punters in the league during their time with the Raiders. That title is now held by the latest successor, Marquette King. At the Pro Bowl, we might get treated to an awesome trick play that just might feature Mr. King.
Derek Carr
Okay so after what was likely a shocking first pick for most, here’s one we can all agree on. Quarterback Derek Carr has put up astonishing numbers, and no one else in the league is more deserving of the MVP award than him at this point in the season. He will have to keep it up over the second half if the 2016 NFL MVP award is to be given to him, but there is no real reason to believe that Carr will not continue to play at a high level.
Without Carr, the Raiders would have an awful win-loss record. It’s tough to predict exactly how many wins the Raiders would be able to win without Carr, but the conclusion would be a small number. Carr has left his mark in every game, good and bad, mostly good, and is the biggest catalyst for the team’s 6-2 record. He has come through over and over again when the Raiders desperately need to score, which is what elite quarterbacks do.
When the game gets faster, when the score is close and momentum is starting to shift to the other team, it is so important to get into the end zone to kill that spark. Carr has done that time and time again. He has three fourth quarter comebacks already this year, with wins over the New Orleans Saints, Baltimore Ravens, and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. So much can be spoken about Derek Carr, and it has been since he’s burst into the spotlight this year. Derek Carr is the most valuable player on this team, has put up awesome numbers throughout the season, and is ranked among the top quarterbacks as of now. He absolutely deserves to be selected to the Pro Bowl at this point in the year.
Amari Cooper
This was the hardest selection to make. While Marquette King and Derek Carr absolutely should be selected in, figuring out who should be the third Pro Bowl selection is pretty difficult. Offensive linemen Kelechi Osemele, Rodney Hudson, and Donald Penn have been top five players at their positions. Defensive end Khalil Mack started slow at the beginning of the season but has caught fire, recording five sacks in the last five games. He has been the stimulant for the better play by the defense. The player who ends up being slightly more deserving of those four, is wide receiver Amari Cooper.
While Michael Crabtree gets plenty of attention from Derek Carr, and seems to be his favorite red one target, Carr loves to get the ball to Cooper. There are very few receivers that can create after the catch like Amari Cooper. His hands have been much better this season, and he has made some really nice plays that resulted in a lot of yardage. Carr to Cooper has been an electric connection and Cooper has put himself in the same conversation with the rest of the top wide receivers in the NFL.
