Seahawks punting competition will come down to money

With both Jon Ryan and Michael Dickson doing well on Thursday, who gets cut from the Seahawks will be about dollars.

Whoever wins the Seahawks punting competition will be entertaining. Long-time Seattle punter Jon Ryan has done some funny things on the field like fumble a fake punt after running 40 yards. But he has been a quality person and punter. Michael Dickson, a 2018 draftee, is a funny guy with incredible potential.

On Thursday during Seattle’s first preseason game, both punters kicked well. Dickson had the most impressive punt of the game, however, when he booted a ball from near his own goal line 65 yards in the air. The punt went so high and was so heavy, the poor Colts punt returner muffed the ball. These kinds of kicks are why Dickson was worth taking a draft pick on.

But Ryan was more than solid himself. Ryan has never been a bad punter or anything close to one, but he does seem to be inspired by the competition with Dickson. Ryan had one punt for 53 yards but all three of his were solid.

But the reason Dickson will win the job in Seattle over Ryan is simply dollars and cents. It simply doesn’t make sense for the Seahawks to keep paying Ryan more than $2 million a year when Dickson may be just as good or better than Ryan. Plus, Ryan is 36 years old and Dickson is 22.

On Thursday, Dickson averaged 50 yards-per-punt. Ryan averaged 46.5 yards-per-punt.

If each punter were to maintain their yards-per-punt average over an entire year (which would be very possible) then it would break down like this. Ryan, who has a cap hit of $3.2 million, would be owed $68,817 for every average yard. Dickson, who makes $552,537 in 2018, would be owed $11,050 for every average yard. That is a huge difference. (Even if Dickson regressed to Ryan’s average yards-per-punt Seattle would still just pay $11,882 a kick.)

Dickson may just be a better punter than Ryan anyway. But if both were equal, the Seahawks decision on which to let go is an easy one. Dickson costs less and Seattle could spend the money he saves in more needed areas of the team.