It was the start of free agency in 2013 when the Kansas City Chiefs surprised us all and locked up punter Dustin Colquitt to a five-year contract. Four years later, Colquitt is entering the final year of his contract.
Colquitt is great and I hope he’s a Chief next year. He should be. However, his contract combined with his age (34) makes you wonder.
Cutting Colquitt can save the Chiefs $4.1 million against the cap (and $800k in dead money).For a team up against the cap, that’s quite a bit. The Chiefs could do a long-term deal with Eric Berry where his first year cap hit is under $5 million so cutting Colquitt could make room for that right there.
Cutting Colquitt is also a bad idea for a team that relies so heavily on special teams. The Chiefs are a team that needs to win field position and Colquitt is one of the most consistent punters in the league. If it were so easy to find a punter, the Chiefs probably wouldn’t have given Colquitt a big contract four years ago.
The better question here is probably will the Chiefs extend Colquitt. I don’t know about another five-year deal that will take him into age 39 but I wouldn’t be opposed to bringing him back beyond 2017.