2025 Arizona Cardinals training camp roster preview: P Blake Gillikin
Leading up to the start of camp, we will take a look at every player on the offseason roster, their background, their contract, their play in 2024, questions they face and their roster outlook.
Next up is punter Blake Gillikin.
Blake Gillikin background, 2024 season
Gillikin enters his sixth NFL season and third with the Cardinals. He was a rookie free agent in 2020 out of Penn State and signed with the New Orleans Saints. He spent his rookie season on injured reserve and then was their punter for the next two seasons.
In 2023, he did not make the Saints' roster out of camp and was released. He signed with the Cardinals in October after Nolan Cooney, who had won the job out of camp, beating out Matt Haack in training camp, struggled to start the season.
Gillikin punted the final 13 games, averaging a franchise-record 50.6 yards per punt.
He re-signed in the offseason on a two-year deal.
Last season, he punted in the first 13 games before injuring his ankle, which sent him to injured reserve and ended his season. He averaged 49.7 yards per kick with a career-high 44.2-yard net average and only one touchback. Nineteen of his punts (50%) were downed inside the 20-yard line, the highest rate of his career.
Blake Gillikin 2025 contract details, cap hit
He is in the final year of the two-year, $3.7 million deal he signed in 2024. In 2025, he will make $1.8 million in salary with no guarantees. His cap hit will be $2.1 million.
Questions he faces, roster outlook
He has been both very good and very consistent for the Cardinals since he signed in 2023. He punted better each year. Can he maintain that, and will that ankle injury linger?
As for the roster, the Cardinals didn't bring in any other punters to compete in the offseason, so the job is his, unless things go sideways. The punter's job is never 100% secure. But as long as he continues to play at the level he has, he has a spot on the roster and could earn a contract extension.
Get more Cardinals and NFL coverage from Cards Wire's Jess Root and others by listening to the latest on the Rise Up, See Red podcast. Subscribe on Spotify, YouTube or Apple podcasts.
This article originally appeared on Cards Wire: Arizona Cardinals training camp roster preview: P Blake Gillikin
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