Falcons place punter Dustin Colquitt on reserve/COVID-19 list

The Falcons have spun the ol’ punter wheel a couple of times this season, but they appear to have settled in nicely with Dustin Colquitt. The 39-year-old is 13th in the NFL in yards per punt average right now and has mostly gotten stronger as the weeks have worn on, the deeply unfortunate blocked punt against Dallas notwithstanding.

If the team and Colquitt are lucky, he’ll suit up against the Jaguars and keep the good punts rolling. There is some doubt with that now, though, because Colquitt has been placed on the reserve/COVID-19 list.

Assuming Colquitt is vaccinated, a pair of negative tests 24 hours apart should have him off the list and back ready to go against the Jaguars. If he is not vaccinated, he will need to spend a minimum of 10 days on the list, which means he’ll miss the Jacksonville game entirely. Atlanta’s lack of immediate urgency in signing a punter probably suggests the former, but I’m not going to guess.

Chances are that the Falcons will sign a punter to the practice squad in case Colquitt can’t go Sunday, and the paved the way for that move by releasing Joe Sculthorpe, who re-joined the team ahead of the Patriots game after spending the summer in Atlanta. That addition could be Elliott Fry, who is around every week in case of emergency, or it could be a dedicated punter like Cameron Nizialek or Dom Maggio that the Falcons had on the roster at one point or another in the recent past.

Colquitt is, at least to my knowledge, one of two Falcons currently on the list. We have yet to hear any updates as to whether Josh Andrews has re-joined the team after being placed on the list about a week ago, though I’d expect any update on his status ahead of Sunday’s game, as well.

Hopefully we’ll see Colquitt out there against the Jaguars in a game this reeling Falcons team would very much like to win. Either way, we hope he and his family are healthy.