Oakland Raiders: Rookie report card at the midway point of the season
By Nico Di Fede
Undrafted — Alec Ingold, FB
The man who has paved the way for fellow rookie Josh Jacobs throughout this season, Alec Ingold has proven that the fullback position still has value in today’s NFL.
Since Week 1, Ingold has made multiple key blocks in every game and has converted on every short-yardage situation on third and fourth down thus far this season, as he is 4-for-4.
He and Jacobs already have great chemistry as the two celebrated in the Black Hole together following a touchdown that Ingold made a key block on.
Expect that to be a common scene as the season goes on and if Allegiant Stadium in New Vegas has a similar design where the players can jump into the crowd, a common scene for years to come.
Grade: A
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Undrafted — A.J. Cole, P
After last season, Raiders fans know how much having a bad punter can hurt a team. 2018 fifth-round pick Johnny Townsend displayed some of the worst punting I personally have ever seen.
Despite going undrafted, A.J. Cole has been night and day from Townsend and has given the Raiders defense good field position multiple times, which most of the time has not been able to be capitalized on.
Cole has punted the ball 32 times this year with an average of 47.9. On those 32 punts, only a minuscule amount of two have gone for touchbacks, while 14 have been downed within the 20-yard line.
14 punts downed within the 20 may be nothing special, but the fact that he only has two touchbacks shows that it isn’t due to him putting too much leg into kicks and lacking accuracy.
Next. Oakland Raiders rookies building a new core ahead of Las Vegas move. dark
As he gets more experienced, that number should go up. Though even if it didn’t, he is already playing like an above-average NFL punter and we still have eight games to go.
Grade: B+