special teams contributing little

There's a few ways to make your starting quarterback's Sunday a true nightmare.You can appoint Tom Walsh as your offensive coordinator. You can assemble a 72-sack offensive line. You can even hire a head coach whose No. 1 tool on gameday is a wooden clipboard that was made in 1992.The 10 Santonio Holmes White jersey
2006 proved that each of those means work.Here's another way: You can continually set your offense up with subpar field position.For Oakland, that's one of the very few aspects of the team that was bad last year but is equally as bad this season.Aside from the always-consistent All-Pro punter Shane Lechler, who boots the ball, on average, 49 yards per attempt, the Raiders rank in the bottom five in the league in nearly every major special teams category stats have to offer.Take a look.The Raiders' average starting field position is their own 27?-yard line. That's 29th in the NFL. Even last season, as nightmarish as it was, they ranked 12th in the category, averaging a starting point of just past the 31. On kick returns, Chris Carr and Dominic Rhodes have combined for a 29th-ranked 20.9 yards per attempt.Longest kick return this season: 35 yards. NFL rank: 28th.On the flip side, Oakland's special teams unit allows opposing kick returners to gain 28.2 yards. That's second last in the league.When punts go to Chris Carr or Johnnie Lee Higgins, they run 3.4 yards before falling to the ground. Mark that down as worst in the NFL.When a returner facing the Raiders fields a punt, he travels 9.2 yards before being dropped. Finally, something that's not in the bottom five in the league: 18th.Oakland's opponents begin their drives from just past the 32-yard line. That's ranked 24th. Not surprising, considering, as previously stated, the team ranks 31st and 18th in kick and punt return defense, respectively.Back 10 Santonio Holmes black jersey
to the bottom five: field goals. Sebastian Janikowski is an atrocious 60.0 percent this season (6 for 10), and is 0 for 3 outside of 50 yards with a long of 48. All of that factors out to 31st in the NFL.It looks as if the Raiders need to get some special teamers on steroids and draft a kicker in the first round.Whoops.