Reports surfaced last night that the Pittsburgh Steelers not only intend to hold a workout shortly for former Kansas City Chiefs punter Dustin Colquitt, that they intend to sign him provided that said tryout goes well. He first has to go through the Covid-19 testing regimen before he can get to that point, but the team still has time before the season opener, if this is the direction they choose to take.
Assuming that the team does sign him, he would be the second Colquitt in the Steelers’ family. His father, Craig Colquitt, was a third-round pick as a punter for Pittsburgh back in 1978, and he spent seven years with the team, including the 1978 and 1979 Super Bowl-winning squads. Those were also his two worst seasons, averaging 40.0 and 40.2 yards per punt. He did finish in the top 10 in punting in two seasons, including in 1983 with 43.3 yards.
Notably, earlier this year, Craig became the first player to win a Super Bowl in the history of the game to then go on to raise multiple Super Bowl-winners. Dustin won the Super Bowl with the Chiefs back in February. His brother, Britton Colquitt, previously won the Super Bowl with the Denver Broncos in 2015.
As far as Dustin goes, like his father, he was a third-round draft pick. He spent the entirety of his career with the Chiefs since 2005 before he was released following the 2020 NFL Draft in what was regarded as a salary cap move that saved them over $2 million at a time in which they only had $3.55 million in cap space. They signed Tommy Townsend as a college free agent, and he was their only punter in training camp, consequently making the team.
His 2019 season was very average, even in comparison to what the Steelers have become used to. At the age of 37, he averaged 44.3 gross yards per punt, with a 41.2-yard net average. He also had fewer punts (and fewer by percentage) land inside the 20-yard line, with about the same percentage of punts being returned, though the ones that were returned did less damage. Everything down to their hangtime was rather similar.
Statistically, there is no clear indication that the Steelers would be getting an upgrade by signing Colquitt, no matter how much fans dislike Berry. In essence, all they may get is somebody new to complain about, and for the special teams group to get used to. Why they would want to spring an entirely new holder on Chris Boswell just before the season starts without a clear upgrade is beyond me.
The likeliest explanation, I would imagine, is that Berry must have had a bad training camp. The Steelers are the sort of team, and they’ve been on record saying this, who likes to get a look at what they have to see where they can make improvements. Colquitt has been available since the end of April, including all through training camp, but they never thought to call him up.
