Anatomy Of A Kick

Daniel Carlson filled a big void on the Raiders roster last year when the former fifth-round pick of the Minnesota Vikings made 16 of 17 field goal attempts. Carlson picked right back up again this season with success on six of his first seven attempts before hiccups in wins against Detroit and Los Angeles. Carlson sat down with S&BI recently to give a first-person account of what goes into his kicking, from the moment he gets the signal from special teams coach Rich Bisaccia to the moment the ball sails through the uprights. Call it Carlson’s anatomy of a kick:

“There’s a lot that goes into a kick, and definitely the clock is part of it. I try not to worry about it too much just because I want to do my job and let the holder handle it. AJ will remind me, ‘Hey, we got 15 seconds on the clock,’ or something like that. And I know how long it takes me to get my steps and get ready for us to be able to get a snap off. If it’s under that I know I have to hurry a little. For me I try and keep it as simple as possible. We try to get out there in time and get the guys lined up in time. Sometimes it doesn’t happen. Sometimes it’s a late celebration of a touchdown or just a late decision on the sideline, you get out there and make the best of those situations. I want to keep it on point as possible but you don’t want to risk getting a delay penalty or something like that. There are certain things in my process that I know. Usually I take a little slower breath. I take time in certain things where I’m not really moving. If I take my steps back faster or slower, the consistency of those steps, I’m going to be at a different length. But there are other movements, whether I’m looking up at my target line, I can do that a little quicker and still end up in the same spot at the end.

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