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Is Dustin Colquitt safe from Chiefs cap casualties?

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.

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