Australian Rules: Dickson stays king of punters from Down Under

A brief look at the wave of Australian punters and where it could be headed next

The Seattle Seahawks extended Michael Dickson to a four-year, $16.2 million contract on Tuesday, keeping him atop the leaderboard for the highest-paid punter in history. But to many of you this news is too stale (5 hours old) to be “breaking” anymore, so I’d rather just talk about Australians in American football for the rest of the newsletter.

I have a history with Australia that goes back to before the day I was born. My parents were living there while my mom was pregnant with me but moved back to the U.S. months before I started a non-negotiable daily habit of being alive.

My connection to that country has grown strong again as the Australian version of my favorite show — Survivor — has been more exciting in the last few years than the American edition. At least Jeff Probst can comiserate with punters on what it’s like to fall behind the competition Down Under.

And if you think I’m referring to Dickson and maybe one other guy as Australian punters “dominating” the position lately, as I might have assumed if I wasn’t the one researching the article today, that would be like saying “this is a knife” when in actuality “you call that a knife?”

College punters, 2024-2025

Not that I’m an expert on any of the top players in college football, but kickers and punters are the ones where I probably won’t find out who the best ones are until they’re a few years into an NFL career if they get that far.

So I wasn’t aware that according to a recent tally by The New York Times, almost 50% of FBS programs (61/133) have an Australian punter on the roster.

The dominance is so prevelant that it sparked a lawsuit by an American who alleges that “unfair recruitment practices”, i.e. competing for scholarships against 25-year-olds who have played in the Australian Football League (where punting is roughly the same as it is in the U.S.) for several years, have made it difficult for high schoolers to get an equal shot at this sparse opportunities.

Maybe. But it will be hard to get people to pay attention because PUNTERS.

Alex Mastromanno, Florida State

The Brighton native was one of three finalists for the Ray Guy award in 2024, his second consecutive year as a finalist, and a consensus All-American. He set the ACC record for punting average at 49.3 yards. Mastromanno graduated but hasn’t signed with an NFL team yet.

Brett Thorson, Georgia

The top-ranked punter in the country by the website Stay Alive In Power 5, Thorson was one of the other two finalists for the Ray Guy award. The Melbourne native was second-team All-American.

Rhys Dakin, Iowa

The third-ranked punter by Stay Alive in Power 5, Dakin also hails from Melbourne.

Jack Bouwmeester, Utah and Texas

The fourth-ranked punter on the list, Bouwmeester is from Bendigo and transferred from Utah to Texas (Dickson’s alma mater) this offseason.

Atticus Bertrams, Wisconsin

The sixth-ranked punter on the list. Punted a 74-yarder last season.

Keelan Crimmins, Purdue and Illinois

Kade Reynoldson, Duke

Jackson Ross, Tennessee

Let’s speed this along because Australians hold 7 of the top 14 spots on that list by Stay Alive in Power 5.

Newly Professional Punters

According to Nathan Chapman, who runs the Prokick Australia program, 25 of his alumni are competing to be professional punters on some level this year:

“There were 25 Prokick players finishing up at college this year who will either be trying for the NFL or the Canadian Football League, it’s a big year of names coming out – probably one of the biggest – so hopefully it’s a good weekend for us,” Chapman says.

Jeremy Crawshaw, Floriday → Broncos

The Penrith, Australia native was drafted by Denver in the sixth round. He is Florida’s all-time leading punter with a 46.4 yard average.

James Burnip, Alabama → Saints

The Melbourne native signed with the Saints as a free agent. Along with Crawshaw, was one of the two punters invited to the Senior Bowl.

Jesse Mirco, Vanderbilt and Ohio State

Unsigned as an NFL free agent, the Western Australia native has started a career in the CFL for now.

These three players + Mastromanno were basically 80% of the top-ranked punters in the 2025 draft class.

By 2030, would it be surprising if almost half of the NFL’s punters were Australians? We aren’t close to that yet (there were only four last season) but the wave seems to be crashing in soon.

NFL punters

A lot of this started with Darren Bennett, the current record holder for Australians with 160 career games played, mostly with the San Diego Chargers from 1995 to 2003. Like Dickson (116 career games played), Bennett was a rookie first-team All-Pro, but this is how much the sport has changed:

• Bennett led the NFL with a 46.2 yard average in 2000

• Dickson’s CAREER average is 48.2 yards per punt, and 46.2 would rank as his second-worst season

• Dickson has averaged just under 50 yards per punt in the past two years

Dickson averages five more yards per punt than Bennett did in his career.

With his new salary of $4.05 million per season, a raise from $3.67 million per season, Dickson makes over $500k more per year than second-place Jack Fox.

Other current Australian Punters:

• Tory Taylor, Bears

• Matthew Hayball, Saints

• Mitch Wishnowsky, 49ers (released)

Wishnowsky had the worst punting average in the NFL last season and is currently a free agent. And true to the lawsuit, these are punters who all started their NFL careers at age 27!

There is only one exception:

Michael Dickson.

After going undrafted in the 2014 Australian Football League draft, the teenage phenom went to Prokick at age 19 and was soon picked up by Texas as a recruit. Dickson managed all the accolades (Ray Guy, All-American) without being 6 or 7 years older than the competition.

And Dickson isn’t the only Australian to make history with the Seattle Seahawks. Can you name the first Australian to ever win* the Super Bowl?

*He wasn’t really there, but he did get a ring

Though Dickson is the highest-paid punter in NFL history, the highest-paid Australian in NFL history is Jordan Mailata. The only other Australian athlete in the world estimated to make more is NBA player Ben Simmons.

Dickson’s $4 million salary now puts him into the echolon of players on the roster who are being paid as first round picks on their rookie contracts such as Grey Zabel, Byron Murphy, and Jaxon Smith-Njigba. The Seahawks have high expectations that he will continue to improve under Jay Harbaugh, even despite already being one of the best punters in the league.

If not, the contract gives Seattle more incentive to vote him off of the tribe in a couple of years in search of a cheaper punter, who will probably also be Australian. Luckily, it won’t likely have to come to that.

Seaside Joe 2289