Special teams ace? Sure.
Special teams war daddy? Why not?
And yet…
Jon Rhattigan, an inside linebacker by trade who was signed midseason to help shore up the Raiders special teams units, has a more wide-ranging description for himself.
That of a complete football player.
And for good reason.
"It's everything you do in football, right?" Rhattigan told me of playing and excelling on special teams on the most recent episode of Upon Further Review.
"It's tackling. It's blocking. It's vision. It's being aggressive. So you kind of wrap all that together, and … I love the fact that when you're a good special teams player, you're a good complete football player. And that's kind of how I pride myself in the game."
It's a dignity and a dedication precious few others in the NFL hold, and one that Rhattigan does not take for granted.
Because whenever his NFL career comes to a close, Rhattigan, as an Army grad, has a five-year commitment to fulfill.
It makes you wonder how Rhattigan can compartmentalize reading an NFL playbook during game week, knowing what awaits him in the real world.
"Yeah, I think my best answer is that I don't, because I think the best thing you can do for yourself when you're a professional football player, whatever job it is that you have, it's not about what's going to happen a year from now, it's not about what's going to happen five, 10 years from now, it's never about the future. It's about right now, focusing on today.
"I chose to go to West Point and I am very fortunate and glad that I did and graduated from there. And with that comes serving our country. So I'll have no problem with that when the time comes. But in the meantime, I'm completely focused on being a football player and representing West Point and the military and, obviously, now the Raiders organization as best I can."
Consider: Rhattigan is one of just three Army players to have ever suited up for the Raiders, joining tight end/offensive lineman Bob Mischak (1963-65) and defensive end Andre Carter II (2024).
And when told that Al Davis crafted the Raiders iconic uniforms after being inspired by Army's "Black Knights of the Hudson" scheme, Rhattigan smiled.
"I love that," he said. "The more you know. I love that.
"It's cool to know that history. It's cool to have some personal history. But at the end of the day, it's about the organization and Coach [Pete Carroll's] Rule No. 1 - protect the team. So it's about the organization more than anything and I'm just so fortunate to be out here. It's tough, right? We're not where we want to be as a team. We're 2-8 and that's going to come with its frustrations. But at the end of the day, it's such a world class organization. So representing the Raiders, representing the NFL and then, obviously, West Point and our nation's military, it's a lot more than just the record sometimes and it's tough to really say that because football is about winning. Playing competitive sports is about winning."