RENTON — Veteran punter Michael Dickson signed a four-year extension Tuesday morning.
The new contract is worth $16.2 million, a league source confirmed to The Athletic. Dickson’s average annual salary makes him the highest-paid punter in the league, surpassing the Jacksonville Jaguars’ Logan Cooke, who Monday signed a four-year deal averaging $4 million per season. Dickson had one year remaining and $2.95 million remaining on the four-year, $14.6 million extension he signed in 2021 that placed him atop the richest punter rankings until Cooke’s new deal.
Dickson, acquired as a fifth-round pick in 2018, was voted first-team All-Pro in addition to making the Pro Bowl as a rookie and has been one of the league’s best punters. He was named to the Seahawks’ all-time Top 50 team this offseason.
“Really exciting to get Michael done,” Macdonald said. “Great job by the guys in the front office. Dicko, he’s a premier punter in the league. He’s a weapon for us. The stats show it. The film shows it. And he’s got a great attitude about him, great personality (and) guys love him. Really excited to have him here for the long haul.”
Last season, Dickson ranked fifth in net yards per punt and eighth in yards per boot, according to TruMedia.
“He’s certainly not taken for granted within this building,” second-year special teams coordinator Jay Harbaugh said last week in response to a question about Dickson’s being undervalued. “We love him, and I’m highly impressed by him all the time. I think the world of him. His consistency as a performer, he’s really a model.
“Even though it is really different from a lot of other positions on the field, I think when you get past that, if you’re another player and you see who he is as a pro and what he does day in and day out, the mental approach, the care he takes for his body, his ability to take information, good or bad, and process it and then move on, it’s really a great example for other players as well.”
Seattle has over $31 million in salary-cap space, according to Over the Cap, so Dickson’s deal likely won’t make much of a dent on the books. Nor should it affect Seattle’s ability to extend any members of its 2022 draft class, which includes left tackle Charles Cross, running back Ken Walker III, outside linebacker Boye Mafe, right tackle Abe Lucas, cornerback Riq Woolen and safety Coby Bryant.
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