Dustin Colquitt was drafted No. 99 overall in the third round of the 2005 NFL Draft. That’s about as high as it gets for a specialist, especially a punter. Only one punter has been taken earlier since then (Bryan Anger, No. 70 overall in 2012).
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Colquitt is one of a select few punters taken in the first 100 picks of a draft; a punter hasn’t been selected in the second round or earlier in 30 years now. But he was also one of the few who lived up to his draft pedigree, lasting in the NFL for 17 years, with his last game coming in 2021.
Despite not playing in four years, Colquitt officially retired from the NFL on Wednesday, ending his career on the gridiron at age 43. Though he spent his last two seasons bouncing around four different teams, he played his first 15 with the Kansas City Chiefs. Because of that, he signed a one-day contract on June 4 so he could retire as a Chief.
We have signed Dustin Colquitt to a one-day contract. He will officially retire as a Kansas City Chief ❤️
Congrats on a well-earned retirement, @dustincolquitt2! pic.twitter.com/9cWoPxY3VY
— Kansas City Chiefs (@Chiefs) June 4, 2025
All those years in the NFL meant that, even though he was a punter, which is the second-lowest paid position in the league behind long snapper, he still racked up a lot of dough. According to Spotrac, he made a total of $36,252,763 while playing in the NFL, $34.26 million of which came during his time with the Chiefs.
The five-year, $18.75 million deal he played on from 2013 to 2017 paid him $3.75 million a year, which remained the highest ever for a punter until the Raiders signed AJ Cole to a four-year, $15.8 million deal that paid him $3.95 million a season.
And Colquitt deserves to be up there among the highest-paid boots in NFL history. His 1,198 punts rank seventh all-time, his 53,660 punt yards rank sixth, and his 44.8 yards per punt rank 20th among guys with 500+ punts.
Colquitt landed 483 punts inside the 20, good for a solid 40.3 percent. He was a Pro Bowler in 2012 and 2016 and won a Super Bowl with the Chiefs in 2019. He also holds nearly every Chiefs punting record.
Colquitt is part of a big NFL punting legacy
Dustin Colquitt may have gone down as the most successful punter in NFL history. But he certainly wasn’t the first or the only one. Dustin’s father, Craig, was drafted No. 76 (eighth-highest drafted punter of all-time) by the Steelers in 1978. He won Super Bowls in his first two years with the club and went on to a seven-year NFL career.
Dustin’s younger brother, Britton Colquitt, also punted in the NFL from 2010 to 2020. He played six years with the Broncos, three with the Browns, and two with the Vikings. He led the league in punt yardage in 2011 and won the Super Bowl with Denver in his final year there in 2015.
That means that when Dustin finally got his ring in 2019, the Colquitts became the first ever immediate family with three different Super Bowl winners. Probably. There really is no way to know for sure. But family is a big theme for Colquitt.
The Knoxville native met his wife, Christia, while the pair were at the University of Tennessee. They fell in love quickly—right before he was about to get drafted to the NFL. Quite a coincidence. They got married in 2005, even before Colquitt was drafted. Christia had planned to go to dental school, but forewent that decision to start a family with Dustin.
They now have five kids. Their oldest, Brinkley, is named after Colquitt’s father-in-law; then there’s Colston, named for legendary Saints receiver Marques Colston; then Hartley, the lone girl, named for a UK greenhouse maker; then Kinsler, named for Tigers second baseman Ian Kinsler; and finally Cannon, which is apparently the name Dustin’s parents nearly gave him.
Colquitt, a devout Christian, is surely thanking God for his ability to make perhaps more than any punter in NFL history thanks to his longevity and quality. He certainly needs it now with five little rascals to take care of.
