A Year in Review: Marquette King

A detailed review of Oakland Raiders punter Marquette King, from his booming punts, to his charismatic approach to the game.

After going undrafted in the 2012 draft, Marquette King was able to land himself a three-year deal with the Oakland Raiders as a backup punter to then starter Shane Lechler.

Lechler ending up leaving town not too long after, signing with the Houston Texans. This would then thrust Marquette into competition with Chris Kluwe for the starting punter role. King punted exceptionally well, and never looked back.

Marquette has been one of the more consistent punters in the NFL since that time, 2016 was his best season yet. For the season, King punted the ball 81 times for 3,937 yards, which was good for an average of 48.6 yards per punt. Out of the 81 punts, the ball would land inside the 20-yard line 34 times.

King greatly helped the Raiders win the field position battle, and in return, he was named a second team All-Pro. As well as being one of the elite punters in the NFL, King has became arguably the most entertaining player in the league, both on and off the field.

Marquette has proven to be a valuable commodity and the Raiders should be thrilled to have him apart of their team. Here is a week by week breakdown of Marquette King’s 2016 season.

Week 1

Against the Saints, there was a ton of offensive firepower, so Marquette was not able to get a whole lot of punts in.

Regardless, King still had 4 punts for a gross average of 49.8 yards and a net average of 42.0 yards. He also landed the ball inside the 20-yard line once.

Week 2

King would have another game where he got minimal work, because of the explosive offenses that were displayed between the Raiders and Falcons.

Marquette had back to back games where he only accumulated 4 punts, but he made them count, downing the ball inside the 20-yard line three times. In addition to his coffin-corner punting abilities, King also averaged a gross average of 52.8 yards per punt, and a net average of 34.5.

The highlight of Marquette’s game was his effort in chasing down a punt return that would have otherwise been a touchdown.

Week 3

After two good games from the Raiders offense, they would eventually stall in Week 3 against the Titans. For the first time on the season, King had a full workload.

He would punt the ball 7 times for a gross average of 46.6 yards and a net average of 39.4. King also downed the ball within the 20-yard line three times. Along with his montage of punts for this game, King also set a new career high with a 72-yard punt, which completely flipped the field for the Raiders.

Week 4

Despite the Raiders putting up another clinic on offense, King was still able to get off a season high of 8 punts against the Baltimore Ravens. King had a gross average of 51.8 yards per punt and a net average of 46.5 yards per punt. Out of the 8 punts, hewas able to down the ball inside the 20-yard line four times.

Along with his solid punting performance, he even found a little bit of time to mimic a certain Ravens legend.

Week 5

After a string of impressive punting performances, King’s workload would decrease against the Chargers. This was another high scoring affair between both teams, which meant that King would not spend a whole lot of time on the field.

Marquette had 3 punts for a gross average of 46.3 and a net average of 41.3, and did not manage to land a punt inside the 20-yard line.

Week 6

As a whole, the Raiders put up a rather ugly performance against Kansas City. Along with being outplayed in all three phases, it appeared that the Raiders were unaware there was a game on Sunday.

For the game, King had 3 punts for a gross average of 46.3 and a net average of 41.3, and for the second straight week, did not get a punt inside the 20-yard line.

Week 7

Starting in Week 7, the Raiders would go on a two week road trip to Florida, beginning in Jacksonville.

Up to that point, the Raiders played one of their more complete games on all three phases of the game. Marquette had 5 punts for an eye-popping gross average of 54.6 yards and a net average of 50.6, and also downed the ball within the 20-yard line four times.

It was one of King’s best performances of the entire season, but on this particular Sunday, Marquette earned his paycheck running the ball. It was by far the best highlight of the evening.

Week 8

On the last day of Oakland’s Florida road trip, they would be in an overtime thriller against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Marquette had another great performance, logging 5 punts for a gross and net average of 40 yards, meaning that not a single punt was successfully returned against the Raiders cover team. King also downed 4 of his punts inside the 20-yard line.

Week 9

On Sunday Night, this was potentially the biggest game the Silver and Black had played in over a decade, and they did not let any Raiders fans down. Along with dominating the Denver Broncos from start to finish, the special teams unit was extra special Sunday night.

King had 4 punts for a gross average of 42.3, and a net average of 39.3, and downed the ball inside the 20-yard line twice.

It was an all-around exceptional performance, but there was a specific highlight that made it viral across the all of Twitter. Hint: The awesome punt was not the highlight.

I don’t know about you, but I was ready to buy a Marquette King jersey after this.

Week 11

Following the bye week, the Raiders were off to Mexico City. Marquette had another solid performance, with 3 punts for a gross average of 53 yards and a net average of 49.2 yards. King was able to get one punt inside the 20.

Week 12

Coming back to Oakland on a short week, the Raiders played one of the more memorable games in 2016 versus the Carolina Panthers.

There were a whole lot of points in this one, but when King was put on the field, he produced. For the game, hehad 5 punts for a gross and net average of 47.8. In addition to getting three of his punts inside the 20-yard line, the Panthers were only able to get one attempt to return back a punt, and according to the net average, they did not have success.

Week 13

The Raiders would end their home-stand against the Buffalo Bills. It was another memorable performance from the Raiders.

King shined once again, and it was not all because of his great punting. For the game, King had 5 punts for a gross average of 44.2, and a net average of 40.2, and got the ball inside the 20-yard line twice.

On one punt, Marquette was unfortunately roughed, and it drew a penalty. What King decided to do after the penalty was borderline legendary. To be fair, he did apologize to the referee.

Week 14

On a short week, the Raiders were scheduled to head to Kansas City to take on the Chiefs. Although the Raiders were banged up and out-manned, they did put up a better fight than the previous meeting.

Marquette had probably his worst game of the season. Along with tying his season high of 8 punts, he only averaged a gross of 43.5, and an abysmal net average of 31.1 yards per game.

Most of the damage was done by Tyreek Hill, who returned one of King’s punt’s for a touchdown. To be fair, the Raiders punt coverage team successfully stopped Hill’s initial return, but it was erased because of a bogus penalty. After having to repeat the attempt, the Raiders punt coverage team was worn out from having to run 70 yards down the field, so the punt return touchdown almost seemed inevitable.

Week 15

Against the Chargers, King had somewhat of a bounce-back game. His 3 punts went for a gross average of 51 yards and a net average of 43.3. He only managed to get a single punt inside the 20-yard line.

Week 16

In the Raiders home finale, Marquette would perform for the black hole one more time. King had 5 punts for a gross average of 47 yards and a net average of 40 yards, and only got a one punt inside the 20-yard line.

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Week 17

After Derek Carr went down in Week 16, it was almost certain the Raiders offense was going to struggle moving forward.

A struggling offense usually results in seeing the punt team more than you would like. For the game, King tied his season high of 8 punts for a third time. He averaged a gross average of 56.5 yards per game and a net average of 45.3. King also landed the ball inside the 20-yard line a season high 5 times.

It was another one of King’s great performances. It was unfortunate that it happened at a lost cause, because at that point, the Raiders as a team looked defeated.