Rams Camp: What Does Punter Johnny Hekker's Future Look Like?

What does punter Johnny Hekker's future look like with the Rams?

There’s no disputing what punter Johnny Hekker can do to a football when it explodes off his foot. However, his contract is the impeding factor that makes his departure with the Rams a real possibility.

Hekker's cap hit for the 2021 season is $4.9 million. That’s the highest at his position and is more than the second-highest paid punter by $1.7 million.

The Rams also brought punter Corey Bojorquez into camp this season in what appears to be a competitive battle for the punter spot on the final 53-man roster.

Bojorquez, who spent the last three seasons with the Buffalo Bills, led the NFL last year with an average punt of 50.8 yards. While Hekker can boot the ball like the best of them, Bojorquez too has that ability.

Bojorquez comes with a cap hit of $1.02 million, which equates to a little more than $3.5 million less than what Hekker is on the books for in 2021.

So that raises the question: does it make sense for the Rams to part ways with Hekker and run out Bojorquez as the team's punter?

While Hekker has been a staple in both St. Louis and Los Angeles, being the longest-tenured member of the Rams, financially the move to proceed forward with Bojorquez makes sense. 

He's nearly just as effective and considerably cheaper.

The Rams currently sit with seven million in cap space. They're on the books for paying the highest-paid contracts to the league's defensive tackle (Aaron Donald) and cornerback (Jalen Ramsey). 

While the Rams starting unit on offense, defense and special teams rank towards the top of the league, their depth beyond the starters does raise some questions. With the limited cap space at their disposal, combined with some additional relief if they decide to go with Bojorquez as the punter in 2021, the Rams will have the ability to further improve the makeup of their reserves. 

Hekker and Bojorquez were placed on the NFL's COVID-19/Reserve list on Saturday ahead of the Rams' second preseason game against the Raiders. 

In the preseason opener, they split the punting duties as each received two punts of their own. Hekker averaged 45.5 yards per punt with a long of 48 yards. Meanwhile, Bojorquez averaged 43 yards per punt with a long of 52 yards.

The punting battle will presumably continue to take its shape over the remainder of training camp until the coaching staff settles on who they decide to crown the starting punter ahead of Week 1 of the regular season.

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Nick Cothrel is the Publisher of Ram Digest. Follow Nick on Twitter @NickCothrel.