If there’s one element of Week 1 that will look a lot different on NFL fields around the country, it’s the kickoff.
During the preseason, most teams did not reveal much when returning kicks. Some teams elected to mainly kick the ball into the end zone for a touchback, putting the ball at the 30-yard line.
Raiders head coach Antonio Pierce said in his Wednesday press conference that he’s expecting each club to have its own approach. But he’d like to have an opportunity to make a play with a return.
“Yeah, I just think each team is going to be different,” Pierce said. “If you got good returners, you might not want to kick it to those guys. Just spot the ball at the 30 and go play football. I think it’s going to change each and every week, but we’ll approach it differently based off our opponent. But for us, we do like our returners and we’d love to bring that ball out.”
The Raiders list Ameer Abdullah as their kick returner with Tyreik McAllister as the backup. McAllister returned a punt 81 yards for a touchdown in the preseason finale, but he’s also No. 2 on the team’s unofficial depth chart at that position to Tre Tucker.