There is one location the Las Vegas Raiders won’t be searching at leading up to the 2024 NFL Draft in April: special teams.
The reason is that the Silver and Black have punter AJ Cole, placekicker Daniel Carlson and long-snapper Jacob Bobenmoyer, perhaps the quality player in the league. Cole is also the holder of Carlson’s kicks.
While some of the Raiders’ draft picks will in the end play on different teams, they are being chosen for their offensive or protective abilities.
“Cole is by means of far the excellent punter in the NFL, and … it’s rather clear that Daniel Carlson has been one of the satisfactory kickers in the league since 2018,” according to a story posted in AZ Sports.com previously this year.
However, the Raiders made records when they became the first group to pick a punter in the first spherical of the draft. In 1973, they chose Ray Guy of Southern Mississippi with the 23rd common pick, another daring pass by managing General Partner Al Davis.
The man immediately grew to be the first-class punter in the NFL.
“Having Ray Guy intended having a threat to make the playoffs and win the Super Bowl,” Raiders Hall of Fame cornerback Willie Brown said. “He was simply that robust due to the fact of his potential to punt–when we needed a long punt, he did it; when we wanted a short punt, he did all that. He saved opposing offensive teams lower back in the hole a majority of the time.
“As a defense, you have a shot any time he’s in the game punting. We didn’t worry about whether they were going to get the ball due to the fact no depend the place we were on the field, a majority of their offense commonly started out on the different 20 or inside that sometimes.
“It’s usually great to have a weapon like Ray Guy.”
Guy punted 1,049 instances for 44,493 yards, a 42.4-yard average, in 14 NFL seasons, all with the Raiders in Oakland and Los Angeles. He had solely three blocked punts. In his eleven seasons in which the NFL counted punts that went inner the 20-yard line, he had a total of 209.
His longest punts as a pro went for 77, 72, and seventy one yards.
Guy could have averaged more yards per punt, but he intentionally kicked the ball high, so now not many of his kicks have been returned, and he pinned offenses deep in their own territory, often inside the 20-yard line.
In addition, Guy kicked off for the Raiders, and his long kicks regularly went into and out of the quit zone, stopping runbacks.
Pro Football Hall of Fame historian Joe Horrigan as soon as stated of Guy: “He’s the first punter you could look at and say: ‘He gained games.’”
Guy was also regarded the Raiders’ emergency quarterback and achieved two of three passes for fifty four yards on faux punts, but he in no way noticed the discipline on offense because of the risk he might be injured.
“There is no question he used to be a real football player,” Raiders Hall of Fame Coach John Madden said. “I just didn’t let him play. He was too precious as a punter. He threw tougher than (Kenny) Stabler.
“I used to inform our quarterback: ‘If it receives to 0.33 down, simply throw the ball away. The worst element we have to do is let Ray Guy kick it — and that’s relatively good.”
During the Raiders’ 38-9 victory over the Washington Redskins in Super Bowl XVIII, Guy showed his athleticism by making an incredible, one-handed leaping seize of a excessive snap from center and then punted the ball nearly 60 yards down the field.
In addition, Guy performed key roles as the Raiders won Super Bowls XI and XV.
Guy was selected first-team All-Pro six times and second-team twice, performed in seven Pro Bowls, and was chosen to the NFL’s Nineteen Seventies All-Decade Team, the seventy fifth Anniversary Team, and the one hundredth Anniversary Team.
During the 1976 Pro Bowl at the Louisiana Superdome, one of Guy’s punts hit the gondola and video display screen 90 ft above the field.
“That’s the single issue I get requested about the most,” Guy said. “It used to be nothing like … pre-planned.”
And one more thing: Guy is the solely punter inducted into Canton, Ohio’s Pro Football Hall of Fame.
