Eichenberg was taken in the fifth round of the 2024 NFL Draft by the Raiders, and symbolically, he returned back to square one. If he wanted to make it at the pro level, he automatically knew what was required – a lesson underscored when former special teams coordinator Tom McMahon lined him up at right guard on punt return on the first day of OTAs.

“[McMahon] was like, ‘You better know what the heck you’re doing,'” Eichenberg recalled, “and I appreciate him because he helped me believe in myself. From then on I’m like, ‘Look, if I want to be on this team, be in the NFL, I have to be a great teammate.’

“Back in college, I started at the bottom. Once you get in the league, you’ve got to start at the bottom too. And you’ve got to build from each day and try to get better. That’s what I did in college and that’s what I’m still trying to do in the NFL.”

After missing a few games his rookie season due to injuries, he was active all 17 games in 2025 and played 88 percent of special teams snaps. He finished the season with 23 tackles on special teams, breaking the single-season franchise record which dated back to 1994.

“I never counted the tackles ever. People would always try to tell me how many I had and I told them, ‘Don’t tell me, I don’t want to know.’ Honestly, when you look at it, one of the harder things about teams is if the ball is coming your way. Because the ball can go so many different ways and some of these games, the ball just came my way and I got lucky.”

The parallels between his college and pro journey have continued to show as his impact on special teams opened the door to more defensive opportunities. Through Weeks 1-12, he logged just 30 defensive snaps, a mere 2.5 percent of the unit’s total. But over the final five games, that number surged to 59 snaps, during which he logged 13 solo tackles and a pass deflection.

Heading into his third season, he’ll still be expected to be a special teams ace for the Raiders, but it wouldn’t be a surprise if a bigger role is on the horizon as well. His goal, though, remains the same.

“I just wanted to win,” he said. “And I felt like making more tackles would help us win and it didn’t. But that was my goal, was to just help the team win.”