Seahawks Michael Dickson Ranks As CBS’ No.1 Punter

Good afternoon, 12s. Here’s a look at what’s out there today – Thursday, June 30 – about your Seattle Seahawks.

Seattle Seahawks punter Michael Dickson is entering his fifth season, averaging over 45 yards per punt for his career. While many positions for Seattle are seeing new faces and leaders, Dickson remains a constant. CBS NFL analyst John Breech ranked the league’s top-ten punters, with Dickson coming first overall.

Breech’s list ranks punters not just on stats, but on difficulty and team scheme. In regards to Dickson garnering the top spot, Breech spared no words in his explanation.

1. Michael Dickson, Seahawks

After booming his way to the Pro Bowl as a rookie in 2018, Dickson has somehow only gotten better. Dickson seems to have perfected the art of pinning a punt inside the 20-yard line because he did it 40 times last season, which was the most in the NFL. To put that in perspective, there were only two other punters who even landed 30 kicks inside their opponents’ 20-yard line.

Overall, Dickson placed 48.2% of his punts inside the 20, which was the second-highest percentage in the NFL.

Over the past four years, no punter has placed more balls inside the 10-yard line than Dickson, who has done it nearly 50 times since 2018. When a punter is pinning teams deep, he’ll sometimes have to give up some of his strength for finesse, but not Dickson, who was regularly booming punts in Seattle. Although Dickson had a slightly down year in 2021, he still managed to rank in the top-10 in both punting average and net punting average.

It’s also worth pointing out that returners only averaged 7.3 yards return against the Seahawks, which is a testament to both Dickson and Seattle’s coverage team. That 7.3 return number was the lowest in the league for any team that had to cover 30 or more punt returns.

Read more on Breech’s list here.