Oakland Raiders: Preseason Week 3 — Stock Up/Stock Down

Stock Up: A.J. Cole, P

It was assumed that A.J. Cole won the starting punter job when Johnny Townsend was cut over a week ago after a disappointing 2018 season and preseason opener versus the Rams where Cole was the better player.

The thing is, teams will continuously waive and sign punters at this time of year. So even as the only punter on the team, if he didn’t continue to impress, the Raiders would have signed somebody else. As a result, he still was in a position battle in that sense.

This game showed that sticking with him over Townsend was undoubtedly the right decision. The undrafted free agent had three punts go over 50 yards and two inside the 20-yard line.

This included a punt downed on the two-yard line (stats are inaccurate and show only one punt inside the twenty due to the 80-yard field).

Cole could get better at not putting too much power into his punts which result in touchbacks and instead kick the ball more straight up into the air allowing the coverage team to get there to down it.

But he’s a rookie and is already lightyears ahead of what Townsend offered the team just based on his consistency and much fewer shanks.