The operation between the long snapper, holder, and place kicker is often overlooked, but supremely vital.
Harken back to the 2012 rendition of the Oakland Raiders, where the loss of efficient and steady long snapper Jon Condo resulted in linebacker Travis Goethel being thrust into the role.
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The result was a nightmare.
Two of Goethel’s snaps rolled to punter Shane Lechler. And on a third snap, which was a decent one, Lechler’s boot was blocked as the special teams face plant contributed to the Raiders’ 22-14 Week 1 loss to the San Diego Chargers.
“He’s worked on snapping the ball, and actually he’s done a nice job in practice, but it’s obviously a lot different when you get in a game-like situation,” then-head coach Dennis Allen said in the postgame press conference. He was put into a tough situation, and it hurt us.”
Now, 14 seasons later, the Las Vegas Raiders are going to identify not only a new long snapper for the 2026 season, but a place kicker, too. Klint Kubiak is now the head coach and, as part of his duties as the lead man, assembled a coaching staff which includes veteran special teams boss Joe DeCamillis. The Silver & Black special teams group needed a reset and the 60-year-old special teams coordinator, who has 30 years of NFL experience under his belt, is leading that charge.
Gone is longtime kicker Daniel Carlson. The competition is between veteran Matt Gay (who DeCamllis coached with the Los Angeles Rams in 2020-22 and oversaw the 32-year-old’s best seasons in 2021 and 2022) and undrafted rookie Kansei Matsuzawa (a 27-year-old who taught himself how to kick and shined for the Hawaii Rainbow Warriors). At long snapper, former special team’s boss favorite Jacob Bobenmoyer is no longer on the team and the competition is between four-year veteran Alex Ward and undrafted rookie Tyler Duzanksy.
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Yet, there’s one constant for DeCamillis: Punter AJ Cole III. Enter his eighth season with the Raiders, the 30-year-old is the longest tenured special teamer in Silver & Black, making him the OG of that room. The big bopper of a punter not only provides the booming leg and hang time coveted by NFL teams (Cole’s 48.5 yards per punt average is tops on the NFL all-time records list), but he’s the holder on field goal attempts.
“Yeah, I’ve seen a lot,” Cole responded when asked what gives him hope that this coaching staff is the right one after seeing plenty of regimes during his Raiders’ tenure. “This is my sixth head coach, and I think that the main takeaways I have on what it takes to be successful as a head coach is you have to be authentically yourself and then you have to hire good people around you and trust them to do your job, and so far, that’s all that he’s done. And so, it’s been really fun to see that. I think he knows who he is.
“I think he’s very confident and comfortable in his own skin, and that’s a really impressive quality because I think that any kind of lack of authenticity is pretty easily sniffed out, and so I think that it’s been really cool to see just the confidence in who he is, and I think he’s hired a great staff, and I think he really trusts the people around him, and I think that’s going to go a long way.”
Since his arrival as an undrafted free agent out of North Carolina State that outright beat out 2018 NFL Draft fifth-round pick Johnny Townsend in the offseason of 2019, Cole has been his authentic self. Standing 6-foot-4 and 220 pounds, the Georgia native is bigger than most punters and has a personality as large, too. But through it, he’s been an unwavering presence for the Raiders earning a trio of Pro Bowl nods (2021-23) and two first-team NFL All-Pro accolades (2021 and 2023). And Cole provides that calm, cool, collected veteran presence needed in a special teams room with new faces abound.
He’s a prime example of a veteran who experienced a down year (second season in 2020 averaging 44.1 yards per punt) to rebounding well the following year with a league-leading 50.0 yards per punt average in 2021. And he experienced the downtrodden 2025 season where Cole was hurt on a blocked punt (by now teammate Segun Olubi) when the Raiders lost to the Colts last year. If there’s someone other specialist can lean on, it’s Cole.
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“I think it’s been really interesting having rookies around, having Tyler (Duzansky) and Kansei (Matsuzawa) around. We haven’t had rookies in training camp in a while, so it’s interesting for me to be able to help them with their journey,” Cole said. “There’s so many things that you take for granted having known, having played in this league for a little bit, and so for me, getting to kind of relive my rookie year through them a little bit and get to tell them what my experiences were like going through OTAs and training camp, it’s been really fun.
“And I think there’s a lot of learning that I’ve done as well, like reflecting back on my process, because there’s some questions that they ask me, and I almost have some routines or habits that are just second nature at this point, and I’m having to explain why I do what I do, and I think that’s helped me grow as well. So, I think it’s been a mutually beneficial situation, but they’re both really talented young players, and it’s been fun to kind of work with them.”
Thus, it’s new coach, new faces, new operation of the snap.
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The relationship forged between Cole and the long snapper is vital. As is the one with the punter and kicker.
Not only will he be getting the ball sent to him on punts, Cole will be taking the what either Ward or Duzanksy deliver him on field goal attempts, too. Cole is the one in charge of catching the snap, placing the ball down in proper kicking position, and it’ll be either Gay or Matsuzawa approaching the hold, swinging their leg, and sending the ball into the uprights on field goals.
“Yeah, it’s just reps, I mean, it’s just doing the work,” Cole said when asked how the Raiders go about building chemistry in the special teams room. “It’s just showing up here every single day, getting the work in, and then being really intentional about those reps and asking them, ‘Hey, how do you want this? How do you want that? How do you want this done?’ And it’s not just the technical aspect of them getting comfortable with me holding, me getting comfortable with knowing how they want the football. It’s also the mental aspect of it, of like, I see myself not only as the holder when I’m out there, but also, as their caddy. So like, ‘What do you want from me in terms of communication? Do you want me to talk a lot? Do you want me to just shut up? Do you want me to just listen? Do you want me to ask questions? Different parts of the game, do you want advice? Do you want feedback? What is it that you’re looking for?
“So, figuring out all of those things, how they want me to treat them, how they want me to caddy for them, as well as how they want me to hold for them, I think is important.”
That “how do you want to do it” is a vital question for whomever wins the kicking competition. Cole noted for the last seven seasons, he knew what his tag team partner Carlson wanted to do. Cole was an integral part of an elite snap operation in Silver & Black.
And he’ll once again be a critical aspect for Kubiak and DeCamllis going forward.
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