The Dolphins are signing former Titans punter Ryan Stonehouse, as first reported by Justin Melo of The Draft Network and subsequently confirmed by Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald (ESPN’s Marcel Louis-Jacques adds that it will be a one-year deal). Tennessee recently declined to extend an RFA tender to Stonehouse, thus sending him to the open market.
Melo classifies the Titans’ Stonehouse decision as curious, and indeed, the former undrafted find had established himself as an under-the-radar weapon over his first three seasons in the league. In his rookie year in 2022, the Colorado State product broke Sammy Baugh‘s long-standing single-season punting average mark, moving the NFL’s standard from 51.4 yards per boot (set in 1940) to 53.1. Stonehouse matched that average in 2023, though that season ended a few games early due to a torn ACL and MCL — along with a broken bone — in his plant (non-kicking) leg.
Nonetheless, Stonehouse recovered in time to handle a full slate of punting duties in 2024, and he still managed over 50 yards per kick. On the other hand, his net yards-per-punt average dropped from 44.3 in 2023 to 38.3 last year, and he pinned opponents inside their own 20-yard line just 22 times in 2024 compared to 28 times in 2023, despite receiving 20 more opportunities.
The Titans elected to move on from the 25-year-old Stonehouse and bring in the 35-year-old Johnny Hekker as his replacement. Hekker, the NFL’s most-decorated active punter, has four First Team All-Pro nods to his credit, though the most recent of those accolades came in 2017.
Miami hopes that, with Stonehouse’s injury further in the rearview mirror, he can return to the elite form he displayed from 2022-23. Interestingly, the ‘Fins recently hired Craig Aukerman, who coordinated the Titans’ special teams units from 2018-23, as their own ST coordinator.
Aukerman can certainly take some of the credit for Stonehouse’s early-career success, though it was the Week 13 game in 2023 in which Stonehouse was injured — an injury that occurred on the second blocked punt of the contest — that triggered Aukerman’s in-season dismissal. The 48-year-old did not coach in 2024.
Jake Bailey has served as the Dolphins’ punter in each of the past two seasons, and he is under club control through 2025 by virtue of the two-year, $4.2MM contract he signed last March. The club can save nearly $2MM against the cap with a dead money hit of just $550K if it releases Bailey, which Jackson suggests will happen at some point.
The Broncos are in need of a new punter after Riley Dixon agreed to sign with the Bucs, but they did not have interest in Stonehouse, per Chris Tomasson of the Denver Gazette. The team likewise is not presently interested in free agent specialists Pat O’Donnell and Michael Palardy.
Denver did extend an offer to Dixon, as Mike Klis of 9News reports. Clearly, it was not enough to keep him on the club.
