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.'”
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.