Special Teams Coordinator Brad Seely
Following the Oakland Raiders' second day of Minicamp, special teams coordinator Brad Seely spoke to the assembled media at the team's Alameda, Calif., facility.
Here are the highlights from his time at the podium.
Punter Marquette King has shown growth.
"I think he's done a very nice job of becoming a better directional punter. I think the key is for, really at any position, especially for a punter, is consistency. How many times can you kick a really good ball in a row and how many times does your bad punt show up, because everybody has a bad punt. The key is [to] limit those and can we live with those bad punts. That's what he's done a better job of, in my opinion, is his overall consistency. Whether it's on the short field, the plus 20's that we're always talking about, or even on the long field when he's trying to get the ball to the side of the field for us to cover."
He shared his thoughts about the new touchback rule the NFL is implementing in 2016.
"I think it will affect quite a bit with the ball being put five yards further out. I think it'll still come down to how good are they and how good are we and whether you want to give them a touchback or you want to kick the ball shorter and see if you can cover it. It's easier for all the coaches, I've read a lot of coaches' talk, 'Hey, we're not going to give up a touchback.' Well that's easy to say in May and June. Come regular season, maybe our tune changes because we don't want to give up a big play. Again, I think it comes back to how good is your unit versus how good is their unit."
He also gave his assessment about the punt and kick return jobs heading into Training Camp 2016.
"You have to start with TJ Carrie because he's been there on the punt returns. Then you have to start with Taiwan [Jones] on the kickoff return, who did a really good job for us last year. As always, as we tell those young guys or new guys, that they have to beat somebody out if they want to get that job. We have a lot of guys working, a lot of guys working hard. We'll see once we start playing games, who does well."
Don't sleep on undrafted wide receivers Joe Hansley and Jaydon Mickens entering the mix either.
"I think with Joe Hansley, he proved it in college. He was a good punt returner. We evaluated him as a punt returner and thought he was very good. We're happy to have Joe. With Jaydon, he didn't really do it in college. He was more of a slot receiver, but those guys are the guys that end up being punt returners in this league because they have a great change of direction. He has good hands. It's kind of a new thing for him, but again, we'll see how he does as we keep progressing."
The added depth to the roster will pay dividends for the special teams units.
"It helps a lot. I think it's really huge. We brought in guys like Brynden Trawick and Daren Bates, guys that were good special teams players on other teams. They'll push the guys that are on our present roster that were here last year. They have to compete against our guys. I think any time you go to camp and you have a lot of competition, it's going to just make us better. You know just make us better."
