Raiders narrow down kicking competition to one as training camp begins

The Las Vegas Raiders waived a kicker on Monday, leaving Daniel Carlson as the only placekicker left on the roster as training camp continues to get underway this week. Carlson was the kicker for the Raiders in 10 games of 2018 and all of last season, going 35-of-43 on field goal attempts thus far.

Undrafted free agent kicker Dominik Eberle was the player let go by Las Vegas, though we’ve seen countless kickers start their careers by moving around team to team until things finally click for whatever reason.

Carlson was a fifth round pick of the Minnesota Vikings in 2018 as they were looking for a Blair Walsh replacement, but he was let go after only two games, going 1-of-4 on attempts, none of which were 50 or beyond. With the Vikings, Carlson went 0-of-3 in a tie against the Green Bay Packers and that was the end of his tenure. After missing his second attempt while with the Raiders, Carlson was a perfect 30-of-30 on field goals and 28-of-28 on extra points the rest of the way.

In 2019, Carlson went 19-of-26 on field goals, 34-of-36 on PATs, 0-of-2 from 50-plus, and 6-of-10 in the 40-49 range.

Eberle was a senior at Utah State in 2019, setting six single-season school records and finishing as the all-time leading scorer in school history. With teams forced to pare rosters down to 80 this year, it seems even more unlikely that a team would pick up Eberle at this point. If Jon Gruden gets through camp and loses any faith in Carlson, I don’t expect Eberle to be more than a phone call away. The same could be said for a number of other free agent kickers right now, including Stephen Gostkowski, Ryan Succop, and Graham Gano.

Carlson is the only kicker on the roster. He has yet to win the job.