Left is right at kicker, but will it be Tavecchio?

INDIANAPOLIS » An integral piece to the Raiders’ future at kicker isn’t a kicker.

It’s Marquette King, Oakland’s punter and holder, who essentially limits the team to left-footed kickers only.

King has held for footers his entire career, first Sebastian Janikowski then Giorgio Tavecchio, and new Raiders head coach Jon Gruden seems to think a switch is unreasonable given the difficulty it would afford King. Gruden said he’s relying on Tavecchio at kicker, yet he wants competition at every spot. As the Raiders look for clarity in their postJanikowski era, it might be Tavecchio or another left-footer at kicker. Just not anyone who kicks with their right.

“I think the only difficult thing about having a leftfooted kicker is you gotta find a left-footed kicker, I think, to compete against him,” Gruden said at last week’s NFL Combine. “Because if you’re bringing in a right-footed kicker to compete against a left-footed kicker, it really messes up your holder and the holder is a big part of the operation. Some of the missed kicks, you blame the kicker, but sometimes you look at the hold and it wasn’t very good.

“We want competition at every position, but we like Tavecchio.”

Tavecchio hit 16- of-21 field goals during his first professional season (76.2 percent) and connected on 33- of- 34 extra points. His one miss, against the Chargers late in a 17-16 Week 6 loss, was long-snapper Jon Condo’s fault. Tavecchio’s longest kick stretched 53 yards, right before halftime of an eventual threepoint win at Miami in Week 9.

The lefty’s 21 fieldgoal attempts were 24thmost in the league and his percentage slotted 23rd among kickers with 20 or more field- goal attempts. The Raiders opted to punt a handful of times when Tavecchio could’ve at- tempted a 50-plus-yarder, a field goal Janikowski might’ve hit with ease. The now former Raider owns the most 50- plusyard makes in NFL history with 55. So if Tavecchio is the guy for the 2018 Raiders, might Gruden trust him more from long distance than Jack Del Rio? Or will Gruden bring in a lefty with a bigger boot to test if Tavecchio is ready for Round 2 in Oakland?

The one sure thing with the Raiders’ special teams unit, aside from the fact King will punt, is it won’t feature the 40-year-old Janikowski. Gruden coached the Raiders in 2000 when Janikowski was their first selection in the draft. Almost two decades later, Jan- ikowski’s first head coach admitted his desire didn’t match the team’s final decision on the longest-tenured player in franchise history.

“If it was up to me, I’d bring him back,” Gruden said. “I think we’re gonna move on for obvious reasons. Tavecchio’s probably a little bit better right now kicking off and if I know Janikowski like I used to, we couldn’t afford him in a million years.”

Gruden has pinpointed several players as ones he’s looking forward to coaching — Derek Carr, Khalil Mack, Amari Cooper and even Michael Crabtree and Marshawn Lynch. We still don’t know for certain if the latter two will be back — reports have indi- cated both yes and maybe for Crabtree — and the same might be the case for Tavecchio even though Gruden is “counting on” him, too.

The Raiders already signed two young longsnappers to reserve/future deals to replace Condo when workouts pick up steam again. They’ll likely bring in competition for Tavecchio, as well. The 27-year- old was sturdy but nothing spectacular aside from his regular season debut last season, when he went 4-for- 4 with a pair of 52-yarders.

And if anyone knows what it’s like to have a roster spot all but guaranteed, it’s the only kicker currently rostered.