WATCH: Daniel Carlson reveals humorous consequence for career-best performance
Las Vegas Raiders’ kicker Daniel Carlson, like the rest of Jon Gruden’s team, is off to a hot start in 2021, as the Raiders placekicker has made all six of his field goal attempts to start the season.
Everything has gone right so far for Carlson: last week, he tied his single-game career-high with four field goal makes in four attempts, while adding both extra point conversion attempts; the Raiders won the game and brought their record to 2-0; and Carlson was named AFC Special Teams Player of the Week.
There is, however, one thing that didn’t go Carlson’s way: his fantasy football matchup. And he has no one to blame but himself.
Carlson lost his fantasy football matchup against a friend last week, thanks in part to his career-best day. His friend had Carlson on his team as the starting kicker, and in standard ESPN Fantasy scoring metrics, Carlson had 17 points — the most in one game by any kicker this season.
“That was tough because I took a loss,” he said. “I definitely contributed to that. It’s fun, and I think fantasy is great. It gets people more involved in specific players. … I have a lot of fun with my college friends, and a lot of people are messaging me and telling me, ‘Hey, you did great for me in fantasy.'”
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Road to the win
In 2018, Carlson was drafted out of Auburn in the fifth round — with the 167th-overall pick — by the Minnesota Vikings. In the offseason, he competed with veteran Kai Forbath for the starting job and ultimately beat out Forbath. However, in a regular-season game against the Green Bay Packers that ended in a tie, Carlson missed a potential game-winning field goal in regulation, then missed two more in overtime. Unable to put the game away, he was waived the next day.
However, Carlson was a free agent for only a few weeks until the Oakland Raiders came calling. He’s been with the Raiders since he was first picked up, midway through the 2018 season.
A graduate of Auburn, Carlson was named to the All-SEC first team three times and to the All-American second team three times. He left Auburn as the all-time leading scorer in SEC football history.