Veteran kicker Sebastian Janikowski is embroiled in a salary dispute with the Oakland Raiders that could end his lengthy tenure with the club.
Veteran kicker Sebastian Janikowski is embroiled in a salary dispute with the Oakland Raiders that could end his lengthy tenure with the club.
The Raiders want the 39-year-old Janikowski, entering his 18th NFL season, to rework the final year of his contract that will pay him $4,050,000, according to a report by ESPN.
Janikowski would be guaranteed $238,000, the website reported, if he is still on the roster by Tuesday. However, if the former first-round pick is on the roster Saturday, his full salary will be guaranteed for the season.
Aside from the timetable, the Raiders apparently are concerned with back issues that kept Janikowski from kicking in the final two preseason games. The NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport, quoting a source, reported that Janikowski looked « awful » on Monday.
Oakland, which opens the season at the Tennessee Titans on Sunday, gave tryouts to three kickers on Monday — Mike Nugent, Josh Lambo and Marshall Koehn. All three kickers were among their respective teams’ final cuts on Saturday.
Janikowski, the 17th overall pick of the Raiders in the 2000 NFL Draft, has played 268 games with Oakland — the most in franchise history. He has registered 1,799 points to rank 10th on the all-time list.
Last season, Janikowski converted 29 of 35 field-goal attempts and 37 of 39 extra points. For his career, he has connected on 80.4 percent of his field-goal attempts (414 of 515) .
