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The Baltimore Ravens are making sure their special teams unit is solidified for the next few years. According to the team’s Twitter account, the Ravens have signed punter Sam Koch to a two-year contract extension. Koch was entering the final year of his contract and will now be signed through the 2022 season.
The move not only ensures Koch remains with the team — joining kicker Justin Tucker who got a contract extension last offseason — but is likely some relief on the salary cap as well. Koch was set to make $3.25 million in base salary this season, according to Over The Cap.
Koch is Baltimore’s longest-tenured player currently on the roster, having played for 14 seasons after joining the Ravens via a sixth-round pick in the 2016 NFL Draft. Though Koch has only gone to one Pro Bowl over his career, he’s widely considered to be one of the best punters in the game.
Of his 1046 career punts, 405 of them have been downed inside the 20-yard line (38.72%) while only 81 have been touchbacks. One of the best return specialists the NFL has ever known, Devin Hester, said he hated going up against Koch. Hester noted Koch had a punt that was like a “leaf dropping 100 feet from the air” and that it could “swoop back and forth.”