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Baltimore Ravens: Sam Koch Signs Five-Year Extension

By Joe Serpico

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The Baltimore Ravens announced today that they have reached a verbal agreement with punter Sam Koch on a five-year extension that will keep the 32-year-old in Baltimore until the 2020 season. 

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The extension is for five years at $18.75 million with $7.3 million guaranteed and a $4 million signing bonus. Koch likely could have received more money on the open market next offseason, but like Jimmy Smith, he took less money to stay with the team that drafted him. The new deal places him in the top-five for punters, but also helps reduce the cap number of $3.1 million on the 2015 season.

Koch was set to enter the final year of the five-year, $12.5 million deal he signed in 2011. The deal is important because it is one less potential free agent that the Ravens will have to negotiate with next offseason. Marshal Yanda, Kelechi Osemele and Justin Tucker are all on the final years of their deals as well.

The Ravens used a sixth-round pick in the 2006 draft on the punter out of Nebraska which shocked many. It is not common that kickers or punters are drafted, so the front office must have known there was something special about Koch. He’s played in every game since entering the league and is the franchise leader in most career punt yards with 31,870 yards. He also owns the team record for longest punt with a 74-yard bomb in 2008.

Koch is coming off his best season as a pro, setting career-highs in average yards per punt (47.4) and net yards per punt (43.3) which was good enough to lead the league in net punting. If you thought that his leg might be getting weaker as he ages, he kicked a 73-yarder this past season.

Koch is also critical to the Ravens as the holder on field goal tries for Justin Tucker over the years.

It might be too soon to start making these jokes, but this is a verbal agreement that the two parties made. Someone could change their mind overnight – like DeAndre Jordan did to the Mavericks – and this is all for not. Until the ink hits the paper, nothing is official. However, if the team’s twitter account is making the announcement, you would assume its a done deal. The Ravens twitter account even had some fun with the new deal with a hashtag saying #PuntersArePeopleToo.

I guess the moral of the story is if you are a soccer player that can boot a football, you got a shot to earn some pretty decent money in the NFL. Justin Tucker has proven his value to the Ravens and could break the bank for a kicker’s contract. Another monster year from Tucker will only increase his demands.

Ozzie Newsome needs to keep this kicking duo in Baltimore for years to come. He successfully kept the first piece by extending Koch, and he must find a way to get Tucker a long-term deal as well.

Supplemental Draft Update:

As expected, the Ravens did not use any of their picks in today’s supplemental draft. The St. Louis Rams used a fifth-round pick on Clemson offensive tackle Isaiah Battle, the first player taken in the supplemental draft since the Cleveland Browns selected wide receiver Josh Gordon.

Next: Ravens Not Likely Players in Supplemental Draft

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