Sebastian Janikowski is set to enter yet another season as the Raiders kicker, but the team appears to be exploring outside options in advance of his 18th year.
Oakland brought in Mike Nugent, Josh Lambo and Marshall Koehn — all cut on Saturday — for workouts Monday, Field Yates of ESPN.com reports (on Twitter). Nugent did not win the Giants’ job, and Lambo also saw a younger kicker displace him with the Chargers. Koehn did not win the competition in Minnesota.
The 39-year-old Janikowski has kicked with the Raiders since the 2000 season. He’s in the final year of his contract and is set to count $4.41MM against Oakland’s cap. That figure represents the second-most in the league, behind only Stephen Gostkowski.
Lambo kicked for the Bolts for the past two seasons, and Nugent — a former second-round pick — has 12 years’ experience. Almost all of that came with the Jets and Bengals. Koehn has yet to kick in an NFL game.
Oakland get rid of Sea Bass? Say it ain’t so. He’s an institution there.
Probably just scouting out the kicker market in case Janikowski gets hurt. A lot of teams will do this just so they have a good idea of which kickers they like/dislike so they aren’t scrambling to bring some in before the next game.