In a fairly surprising move, the Raiders released punter Marquette King earlier this week. Scott Bair of NBC Sports Bay Area looked into some of the options the Raiders have in replacing their punter of the last five seasons.
As Bair notes, there’s not much out there for the Raiders in free agency. Brad Wing is the only active punter on the market with full-time experience from last season, serving as the Giants’ starter. But Wing graded out as last in the NFL, per Pro Football Focus, out of the league’s qualified punters.
The Raiders also have former UC Davis punter Colby Wadman on their roster, though he has yet to record a punt in his brief NFL career.
That leaves the draft as the most likely place for the Raiders to find their replacement at the position. Bair identifies Texas’ Michael Dickson — who won last year’s Ray Guy Award — Alabama’s JK Scott, Bowling Green’s Joseph Davidson and Florida’s Johnny Townsend as potential options to be taken in the draft.
The departure of King is just one of several shakeups to the Raiders special teams this offseason. The team also cut long-time kicker Sebastian Janikowski and long-snapper Jon Condo.
Here’s more from around the AFC/NFC West
- Jerick McKinnon‘s versatility in comparison to Carlos Hyde, who signed with the Browns this offseason, has the 49ers ecstatic about their most-recent addition at running back. “Everyone talks about running back and stuff – they need a new position to name people,” 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan said to Matt Barrows of the Sacramento Bee. “Because he plays running back and receiver and tight end – he does all that. You use him the same way you use all these positions. He’s a very good running back. But he also brings a lot of other stuff to the table.”
- While speaking on the “Ben and Skin Show” on Dallas’ 105.3 FM The Fan, Broncos wide receiver Emmanuel Sanders did not speak highly on the physicality of the Cowboys’ secondary, stemming from the teams’ Week 2 matchup last season, which the Broncos won 42-17. “Honestly and truthfully, you know, what I’m going to say… I hope it’s not a shot to nobody but maybe in that game — this is what I saw, it’s the honest truth — I saw a defense that really, truly wasn’t physical. That’s what I felt when I was playing against those guys. In terms of the safeties coming down and hitting me, it’s an old term called ‘sticking your hand in the fan.’ Just unphysical. They weren’t physical at all. I’ve been in the league nine years and after that game, I felt like they were scared or something. That’s the kind of vibe that I had gotten. … I promise, this is not something I’m making up right now. I told everybody after that game that’s how I felt when I played against the Cowboys. Maybe they weren’t scared but I don’t know. … I know what a physical defense looks like and I just didn’t feel it out of that defense.”
- On Saturday, we learned that the Rams plan to play newly-signed Ndamukong Suh at nose tackle in their base 3-4 defense, with Aaron Donald and Michael Brockers on the edges.
That’s some big time shade, but he ain’t lying.. Heath and Jones aren’t striking fear into anybody in the league
It’s Jason Garrett junior varsity coaching and the owner (Jones) content on just making money!!
Cowboys have had enough talent to make deep playoff runs, but the HC is just a JJ puppet, and as long as the owner meddles, that team won’t go anywhere.