Oakland Raider Sebastian Janikowski Compares Well To George Blanda

Do the Oakland Raiders need encouragement? Yes, you bet.

A little pep talk is good for the players and the Raider Nation. Sometimes we do not realize how fortunate we are until we do a little research.

As I looked at the "field goal percentage" tagged FG% I realized that Sebastian Janikowski is indeed a jewel of a player with the Oakland Raiders.

The data was surveyed for the first nine years of his career with the Oakland Raiders. It was compared with the first nine years George Blanda played with the Oakland Raiders.

Here is a discovery showing FG%.

Janikowski	Blanda
68.8	66.7
82.1	61.8
78.8	54.1
88	55.2
89.3	68.2
66.7	65.4
72	69.7
71.9	64.7
80	61.9

One variable that needs to be considered is the age of each player or kicker. Yes, one player was in his forties during the first nine years of his tenure with the Oakland Raiders. Janikowski was in his twenties during his first nine years with the Oakland Raiders.

Blanda's data is outstanding. Janikowski, however, for the time period in this study has a curve that is above that of Blanda's.

Of course, if a comparison is made when Blanda was in the age range of Janikowski, other observations can be made.

For example, it appears that Blanda was more active as a quarterback when he was between 22-years old and 31-years old. The data shows that he was not active on a team when he was 32-years old. At 33-years old, he returned and there is data for that year.

Both Janikowski and Blanda started their professional football career at 22-years old.

At 40-years old Blanda joined the Oakland Raiders. Even at a mature age, Blanda had spectacular performance.

Sebastian Janikowski has stood on the shoulders of a giant. Someone said that Blanda was like a father-figure for him.

Let's believe that the best is yet to come in the career of Janikowski.

Go Raiders!