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It’s rare to see a player openly admit his fantasy football interests, but Las Vegas Raiders kicker Daniel Carlson did just that. In a 26-17 win over the Pittsburgh Steelers, Carlson made four field goals and two extra points in the win. That earned him the honor of AFC Special Teams Player of the Week. It did not however, win him his fantasy matchup.
This is awesome: @Raiders kicker Daniel Carlson made 4 field goals in Week 2 and won AFC Special Teams Player of the Week.
— Field Yates (@FieldYates) September 22, 2021
The bad news? He was playing against himself in fantasy and contributed to his own loss pic.twitter.com/IcSBFc9k79
Carlson happened to be playing against himself this week, which leads to some important questions. The first is why Carlson doesn’t have himself on his own roster. Unless this is a league with multiple kickers floating around, teams usually wait until the end of the draft to pick that position. And prior to the season starting, I don’t think Carlson was a hot commodity given the outlook for the Raiders.
The second, and more interesting question, is how Carlson didn’t allow that knowledge to impact his performance. We’ve seen players do some crazy things for performance bonuses as part of their contracts, but apparently fantasy football is where they draw the line. Good on Carlson for helping out his actual team, not the one he drafted in fantasy football.