With 2 games left, Las Vegas’ ace third in overall average amongst peers
For a good portion of the 2024 season, AJ Cole III found himself king of the NFL punting mountain.
The big-legged Las Vegas Raiders ace was tops in average yards per punt at certain points of the season but now, with two games left in the regular season for the Silver & Black, the 29-year-old is looking up. The Tennessee Titans’ Ryan Stonehouse paces the league with a gawdy 51.1 yards per punt average while the Detroit Lions’ Jack Fox is second at 51.0 even.
Cole, meanwhile, sits at 50.4 and nipping at his heels is the New England Patriots’ Bryce Baringer. Right there with them is the Indianapolis Colts’ Rigoberto Sanchez who holds a 50.0 even average. Of the aforementioned group, Sanchez (30 years old) and Cole represent the oldest with Stonehouse and Baringer at 25 and Fox at 28.
In Cole’s career, he led the league in punting once — in 2021 with a 50.0 average per punt. He also earned one of his three Pro Bowl nods that year and landed on the NFL All-Pro first-team list at his position. With two more games left on the Raiders’ (3-12 overall) slate, once again leading the league is within Cole’s reach — if he can avoid another low average contest like he endured in Week 15 against the Atlanta Falcons.
#Raiders first team all-pro punters since 1976 per @JoshDubowAP
Ray Guy 3 times
Shane Lechler 6
AJ Cole 2#RaiderNation pic.twitter.com/z4NXeXzWIK— Raiders History (@Oaklraiders1976) January 12, 2024
In that game, one of Cole’s punts was blocked outright while another was deflected and the 39.8 yards per punt average he finished with was his season-low. His highest average of the season was 64.0 (two punts against the Kansas City Chiefs in a 27-20 loss back on October 27) with his second-highest mark a 58.0 average against the Cleveland Browns in Las Vegas’ second win of the year back on September 29.
If Cole has sights set on leading the league once more, he can’t have another sub-40-yard average. As it’s Stonehouse who paced the league with impressive twin 53.1 averages in 2022 and 2023. His low mark on the year was a 41.8 average in the Titans 31-12 win over the Miami Dolphins and his high-water performance was a 67.0 average two weeks ago against the Cincinnati Bengals.
The one area where Stonehouse is lacking — through no fault of his own — are the return yards amassed against him. Tennessee has allowed a league-high 683 return yards on the year which dips Stonehouse’s net average per punt (average minus return and touchback yardage) to 37.9, which puts him in the NFL cellar. Cole, for example, has a 42.4 net average as Las Vegas allowed 263 return yards on the season (and Cole has six touchbacks).
In terms of volume of punts and yardage, no one is likely to catch the Browns’ Corey Bojorquez. He has 79 boots on the season with 3,921 yards (49.6 per punt average). The Denver Broncos’ Riley Dixon is second in punts and yards at 71 and 3,343, but at the pace Cleveland trots out Bojorquez, it’s unlikely anyone catches him.
K Daniel Carlson has now surpassed 800 career points as a member of the #Raiders.
He becomes one of four players in franchise history to notch 800+ career points with the Silver and Black, joining Sebastian Janikowski, George Blanda and Chris Bahr.
— Raiders PR (@RAIDERS_PR) December 22, 2024
Carlson Misses Again
Cole’s special teams tag team partner — place kicker Daniel Carlson — missed a field goal in the Raiders’ 19-14 Week 16 win over the Jacksonville Jaguars last Sunday. That marked the sixth miss for the 29-year-old kicker on the year.
Carlson is fifth overall in the NFL in attempts (34) and seventh in makes (29), but his conversion rate of 82.4 percent drags him all the way down to 24th amongst his peers.
But Carlson is far from the lone kicker struggling this season.
The Atlanta Falcons’ Younghoe Koo is 25-for-34 (73.5 percent) while the Baltimore Ravens’ Justin Tucker (the most accurate kicker in NFL history) is 21-for-29 (72.4 percent).
Still, the Pittsburgh Steelers’ Chris Boswell (leading league at 39-for-42), the Dallas Cowboys’ Brandon Aubrey (36-for-42), and Houston Texans’ Ka’imi Fairbairn (35-for-41) are the top three kickers.
Up Next: Las Vegas hits the road for the final time of the 2024 campaign and face the New Orleans Saints. Cole has two career games against New Orleans and punted seven total times for 307 yards (43.86 per boot average) with four boots downed inside the Saints 20-yard line and zero touchbacks. Carlson has the same two games under his belt and is 2-for-2 on field goals and 4-for-4 on point after attempts.
