Daniel Carlson, special teams critical to Las Vegas Raiders success this fall
Daniel Carlson, special teams critical to Las Vegas Raiders’ success this fall
Kickoff
This unit is about grit. You gotta have something in your neck running down on kickoff a million miles an hour inviting contact. A sound and lethal kickoff unit help set the tone for the game and establish a dominant level of physicality.
Starting field position is huge. Carlson averaged 63 yards net return on his kickoffs to go with a respectable 60 percent touchback rate. Their return average in 2021 sat at 22.5–not outstanding, but far better than several teams.
Even better when you have reliable cat daddies on this unit. Last season, Dallin Leavitt, a reserve defensive back from Utah State, led all LV players in special teams snaps with 348 according to profootballreference.com.
While Leavitt may not be the most impactful player on this unit, his presence on nearly every special team’s unit is important in terms of consistency and continuity spanning across various units.
Others to note that notched a high snap percentage on special teams include TE Foster Moreau (54%), LB Divine Diablo (53%), LB Marquel Lee (50%), and LB Cory Littleton (43%). Historically, defensive players have dominated the roster space on special teams, as evidenced by looking at the snap count numbers listed. It will be interesting to track who steps up through camp, preseason, and leading up to the beginning of the season. Regardless, both of these units will factor into how the new McDaniels era begins its journey.
Improvement: Limit missed tackles on this unit, big returns, and win the starting field position battle.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Coaches come and go. We’re all aware of that, but coaching specialists is a niche. Not everyone can do it, similar to coaching quarterbacks. The history and past success of these units should help McMahon find some footing early, but he won’t be able to lean on that for long.