During the OTA’s open to the media, the specialists often occupy the field closest to the gathering of reporters while the offense and defense are typically at the distant adjacent field.
It can be rather boring, particularly early during practice when players are warming up or running through individual positional drills.
It can also get boring for the specialists who will sometimes curtail their boredom with some gamesmanship and competition amongst themselves. Justin Tucker has been seen attempting punts inside the 10 and doing his best Morgan Cox impersonation as a long snapper wannabe.
Sometimes they’ll take turns tossing passes at the goal posts to see who can hit the upright most often.
Yet through it all, the mind-occupying games notwithstanding, it’s hard not to admire the craftsmanship of each member of “The Wolfpack”: Tucker, Cox and of course Sam Koch.
When the regular season starts, Koch, the former Cornhusker from York, Nebraska will be 33 years old. He is by far the longest tenured punter in Ravens history as he prepares for his 10th campaign in Baltimore. The team has had just 4 punters since their inception in 1996: Greg Montgomery (96-97); Kyle Richardson (98-01); Dave Zastudil (02-05); Koch (06-Present).
Early on during the offseason I considered it a forgone conclusion that the Ravens would extend Koch and lower his $3.1M cap figure, the 8th highest in the league. (The Chargers Mike Scifres [19th ranked/net yards] has the biggest cap number at $4.35M).
The number seemed high for a specialist – albeit one who had a productive 2014 season and shows no signs of slowing down. Besides, his cap number represents the 12th highest on the team and nearly double Justin Forsett’s ($1.6M).
But apparently the Ravens are comfortable with the number and willing to address the punter position at the conclusion of the 2015 season.
During his career Koch has averaged 45 yards per punt while netting 39.2 yards. In 2014 he boasted career bests in both categories (47.4/43.3) which ranked 3rd and 1st in the league, respectively.
Some team, possibly the Ravens, will push Koch into the top 5 highest paid punters in 2016.
Perhaps then he can occupy his mind with thoughts of where he’ll spend his newfound wealth instead of clanking passes off the goal posts.
