Kicker Carlson Etches His Name Into Raiders History
By Peter Mann
Victory weekend for the Las Vegas Raiders also meant something else for the die-hard franchise on America’s West Coast, the continuing rise of placekicker, Daniel Carlson, who now sits second in the Silver & Black’s All-Time Points Scorers list.
Since the Raiders were formed, some 65 years ago now, five of their franchise players have worked their names into the echelons of record points scorer; it isn’t an achievement that’s done overnight that’s for sure.
“The three-time Super Bowl winners, who’ve had bases in Oakland, Los Angeles, and now Las Vegas, over the decades, have always had their MVPs, their characters, those stars that shine above all others in the Raider Nation.
But there’s also those who put in the hard(er) yards, go that extra mile, quietly going about their business and put the points on the board just as much as the quarterback, or the wide receiver, or the running back does.
These are the players that help the Raiders to ‘Just Win Baby.’
Following Sunday’s victory at home to the Tennessee Titans (20-10), a fourth quarter, 29yd FG moved one of the Raiders’ top five, into second place in the all-time list, the franchise’s current kicker, Daniel Carlson, edged in-front of 60s & 70s Raiders legend, the iconic George Blanda, rest his soul.
For Carlson though, he now has a very long way still to go if he is to have any aspirations of becoming the All-Time Points Scorer for the Las Vegas Raiders. A long time in that Carlson would need to stay in Vegas for at least another decade in order to overtake Sebastian ‘Seabass’ Jankikowski.
With Chris Bahr (1980-88), and Jeff Jaeger (1989-95), making up the top five for the Raiders, the top three is as follows –
September 12, 2011
— AFL Godfather 👓🏴☠️🔥 (@NFLMAVERICK) September 12, 2025
PK Sebastian Janikowski kicked a 63-yd FG in a MNF game at Denver, it remains the franchise record. Raiders won 23-20.
* At the time it tied the NFL record for the longest field goal at 63 yards, sharing the record with Tom Dempsey and Jason Elam. 🇵🇱 pic.twitter.com/XdeRiAeGrU
SEBASTIAN JANIKOWSKI (2000-17); 1799pts – The Polish-born placekicker nicknamed ‘Seabass’ was the only child of professional footballer, and Polish international Henryk Janikowski (played in the 70s & 80s), and Henryk’s first wife, Halina; like his father, Sebastian also played football, doing so in his teens.
It was to be during his time at Seabreeze High School, Daytona Beach, Florida that the young star would be seen to be playing both versions (soccer and high school football), earning a reputation for his kicking abilities.
He would go on to be named in the 1996 All-American team and committed with Florida State, donning the jersey of the Florida State Seminoles between 1997 and 1999, and was here that he the nickname ‘Seabass’ was first spoken, and it’s a short-and-simple reason why he’s called that as well.
Former FSU wide receiver, Peter Warrick motioned that Sebastian was too long a name for him, so he cropped it to Seabass, and that’s stuck with the legendary Raiders kicker ever since.
In the news recently as someone who’d maybe come out of retirement and re-join the Raiders, former star quarterback, Derek Carr, he said of ‘Seabass’ back in 2016 that; “He’s one of my favourite teammates I’ve ever had, he really is.
“He’s got such a good heart. I talk to him every morning, and he sits behind me at every team meeting. He means the world to me.”
Meanwhile, in the same feature, a Raiders Hall of Famer, Tim Brown, didn’t give much hope of any kind of longevity to Janikowski with the Raiders, adding: “I’m shocked that he’s made it this far, because I thought there was no way he was going to make it this long in the league….
“He had a lot of pressure on him when he first got to Oakland, and I don’t think he was handling it very well. And his way of handling things was to go out and do more of what he had been doing the night before. That was the big issue.” (Still Standing: Sebastian Janikowski’s unlikely path to Raiders loyalty; by Don Banks, Senior NFL writer, Sports Illustrated, 22.06.2016)
‘Seabass’ would be the seventeenth overall pick of the 2000 draft by the Raiders, and nobody would have thought that, the former Seminoles player that year, would go on to spend near two decades in the Silve & Black.
The early years in Oakland were the most successful for the franchises, reaching the Divisional Playoffs/Championship Game in each of his first three seasons, and in 2002, going all the way to the Super Bowl (XXXVII) before losing out to Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the Raiders not really coming to life until the fourth quarter.
It would be ‘Seabass’ who got the scoring underway in the 26 January showpiece, kicking a 40yd FG five minutes into the first quarter; he’d go on to reach the post-season just once more with the Raiders, in 2016, losing in the Wild Card game to Houston Texans.
With Seabass though, his just rewards were posted throughout the regular season, playing over 270 games for the Raiders franchise and setting numerous records, several of which still stand including the Longest OT FG, 57yds against New York Jets in mid-October 2008, and the Longest FG Attempt, 76yds against San Diego Chargers, in late- September that same year.
His points record with the Raiders could easily have been more as well, he missing his final season, with the franchise now back in Los Angeles, due to ongoing back issues, moving to the Seattle Seahawks less than a year later and with whom he’d play his eighteenth and final season in the NFL (19 if counting the missed, 2017 season).
Of his 1799pts in the Silver & Black, the game against the Chicago Bears, on 27 November 2011, saw his register an impressive six FGs, from 40, 47, 42, 19, 37, 44yds respectively, thus setting a franchise record for the most in a game; he would also set a then record for the most FGs made in a quarter, with four (one of eleven players to now achieve that feat).
His 1000th point for the Raiders arrived in the 3 January 2010, a 39yd FG in the 21-13 end-of-season loss to the visiting Baltimore Ravens – the legend he created with the Raiders franchise, the legend of the Polish Cannon, will run for many a decade, and is the benchmark for any current, or future wearer of the Silver & Black Uniform.
RAIDERS CAREER RECORD (2000-17) 1799pts, 557/563 PATs, 414/515 FGs
Quietly. Daniel Carlson is the Raiders second all time leading scorer in franchise history. He trails Sebastian Janikowski who has 1,799 points. pic.twitter.com/0UCxd1xlH2
— Raiders History (@Oaklraiders1976) October 14, 2025
DANIEL CARLSON (2018-Present); 864pts – The current incumbent of the ‘placekicker’ position for the Las Vegas Raiders, is one who just recently moved into second place in the franchise’s all-time scoring charts; Daniel Carlson, having kicked a 29yd FG against the Titans, moved ahead of the previous post-holder, by a point.
Following the departure of Seabass to the Seahawks, the year in which Carlson was himself beginning his NFL journey at the Minnesota Vikings, it would soon be the native Texan who’d fill those oft-heavy books, but fill them he has, and quite well in-fact.
A graduate of Auburn, Carlson impressed massively with the Auburn Tigers, so much that he never missed an extra point during his time there (2013-17), and was at one stage the all-time leading points scorer in the Southeastern Conference, with 480 career points (surpassed in 2023).
In the 2018 draft Carlson was a fifth-round pick by the Vikings, but only played two games of the 2018 regular season with them before being waived, and joining the Raiders on 23 October, impressing (despite mixed results) in the opening weeks of his tenure.
In fact, in week eleven’s narrow, 23-21 success over the Arizona Cardinals, Carlson kicked a pair of extras, and three FGs, including a 35yd game-winner, on the buzzer, en-route to setting the first of several records he’s notched for himself in the Silver & Black.
Thanksgiving 2021 against the Dallas Cowboys was a particular high for Carlson, notching three extras, as well as 5/5 on FGs in a 36-33 win on the road; the scores included a career-best 56yd score, and a 29yd OT score to win the game.
The end-of-season game against the Los Angeles Chargers was also pretty special for Carlson and the Raiders; a 35-32 OT win not only put the Raiders in the play-offs, but eliminated the Chargers from contention at the same time, with Calrson kicking five FGs, including a 47yd score as OT hit the buzzer.
One of the most accurate kickers in the NFL only Justin Tucker (Baltimore Ravens, 2012-24) has made more FGs than Carlson since 2018, and he also has the third most from 50+ yards in the league in the past 25yrs (players in first eight seasons).
Carlson currently holds the franchise records with the Raiders for most points registered in a single season (150pts, 2010), and the highest single-season FG% (94.3, 2020), but he still has a long way to go to catch ‘Seabass.’
RAIDERS CAREER RECORD (as of 12.10.25) 864pts, 225/235 PATs, 213/242 FGs
GEORGE BLANDA (1969-75); 863pts – Blanda is an all-time Raiders great; a native of Pennsylvania, Blanda played both as a quarterback, and as a placekicker, in the formative days of the sport, in the days of the crossover of the old AFL (American Football League), and the modern-day NFL, his career running between the late-40s and mid-70s.
His career began with the Chicago Bears, in 1949, a franchise whom he’d play for twice, the Baltimore Colts, and the Hoston Oilers, before rocking up in Oakland in ’67, giving some of the best years (nine seasons) of his career to the old school Silver & Black.
Winner of three, AFL championships, twice with the Oilers in 1960 and 1961, before going on to add a third, with the Raiders, against his former employers, in ’67, at their own, Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum home.
In that AFL Championship Game, in which the Raiders won 40-7, Blanda kicking through 4PATs, and four FGs (37, 40, 42, and 36yds), as Daryle Lamonica, the main quarterback in Oakland, alongside Blanda, helped lead them to glory.
Blanda’s skills with the boot helped create the legend in which he became, and, by the 1970 AFC title game against the Colts, the Pennsylvania star was moving away from his role as a quarterback, having grown into the role of kicker.
Awards came his way, many of them in fact, as well as his setting a number of records, and is still named in many, Top 100 Lists, to this day; one record is that the oldest quarterback to play in a championship game, doing so at the age of 43yrs.
Of the records held by the Raiders legend, Blanda, throughout his career, has played in the most seasons (26), the oldest players to play in an NFL game (48yrs, 109 days), registering the most passing touchdowns in a game (7, 19 November 1961 vs, New York Titans, now Jets, and shared with seven other players), along with the most PATs made (943) and attempted (959).
Another Raiders legend, the Snake, Ken Stabler, told Sports Illustrated in a September 2010 article, ‘George Blanda was man of miracles,’ that: “I was three years old when he started.
“I remember getting his autograph one time. As cold and hard as he was, I enjoyed being around him. He would tell you what he thought.
“If you liked him, fine. If you didn’t like him, the hell with you. He had that certain quality a lot of people don’t have.”
Throughout his career in the game Blanda would make some 360 appearances, twenty of which came in the post-season, fifteen in the Silver & Black, with his final ever game coming in the 1975 post-season.
Having won the AFC West for the fifth season in six since the merger, the ’75 Raiders would then defeat Cincinnati Bengals 31-28 in the Divisional Playoffs with Blanda kicking four extras, along with a 31yd FG to book a date in the AFC Championship.
This would prove to be Blanda’s last ever game, on 4 January 1976, at the Three Rivers Stadium, Pittsburgh, losing 16-10 to the hosting, Pittsburgh Steelers, the Raiders star closing his long, and oft-illustrious career, with a 41yd FG. Inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1981, Blanda passed away in 2010, forever a Raiders legend.
After his passing, his Raiders coach, the iconic John Madden said of Blanda: “If you put him in a group of most-competitive, biggest-clutch players, I think he’d have to be the guy who would win it all.
“He was the most competitive guy that I ever knew.”
RAIDERS CAREER RECORD (1967-75) 863pts, 395/403 PATs, 156/249 FGs
In addition to the top three of Seabass, Carlson, and Blanda, are the next two on the list of Raiders All-Time Top Points Scorers, Chris Bahr and Jeff Jaeger; Bahr is a two-time, former Super Bowl winner (1980, 1983) and was with the Raiders between 1980-88, whilst Jeager pulled on the jersey between 1989-95, registering 817pts and 667pts respectively.
Like Blanda, Bahr was also born in Pennsylvania, and, following a college football run with the Penn State Nittany Lions, was a 1976 second round draft pick for the Cincinnati Bengals, where he’d play for four seasons before moving to the Oakland Raiders in 1980, helping them to victory in both Super Bowl XV (27-10 vs. Philadelphia Eagles) and Super Bowl XVIII (38-9 vs. Washington Redskins).
Following nine seasons turning out for the Oakland/Los Angeles Raiders, Bahr spent his final season in the game, 1989, with the San Diego Chargers. A quirky fact is that, like another of the Raiders’ top five all-time points scorers, Sebastian Janikowski, Chris Bahr also kicked the more-rounder ball as well, playing for the Philadelphia Atoms, in the North American Soccer League (NASL) in 1975.
Finally, and by no means least, is fifth place Jeff Jaeger, a Raider between 1989-95, either side of donning jerseys for Cleveland Browns (1987-88) and Chicago Bears (1996-99); a Washington-native, Jaeger played for the Washington Huskies in college and was a third-round draft pick in 1987, breaking all of the Browns’ rookie records in his single season in Cleveland.
With the Raiders, Jeager set a franchise record for longest FG, 54yds, in 1992, which was broken nineteen years later with a 64yd FG by….
You guessed it, ‘Seabass.’
Right now, though, in the modern era of the NFL, and the Las Vegas Raiders, for Daniel Carlson to even get anywhere near, let alone break the record of Sebastian Janikowski, he’d need to stay for at least another decade perhaps, especially with ‘Seabass’ having stayed with the Raiders for what seemed like, forever.
Carlson, it’s over to you now….
PETER MANN
NFL ANALYST
PETER IS A LIFELONG SPORTS FAN, JOURNALIST AND AUTHOR BASED IN COUNTY DURHAM. HE HAS FOLLOWED THE NFL AND THE RAIDERS SINCE THE 1980s, AND LOVES BOTH SPORTS AND FAMILY HISTORY. PETER HAS A DEGREE IN SPORT & EXERCISE PSYCHOLOGY, AND CAN BE FOUND ON TWITTER @petermannwriter