Generational punter Johnny Hekker won’t return to Carolina Panthers in 2025
The Carolina Panthers’ special teams unit will look a bit different in 2025.
The Panthers elected to not re-sign free agent punter Johnny Hekker, who instead is headed to the Tennessee Titans on a three-year deal, according to ESPN’s Adam Schefter. The team announced Tuesday that it instead agreed to terms with former Buffalo Bills punter Sam Martin, whose deal will be for one year and be worth up to $3 million.
Martin’s deal, because it came together during the NFL’s open negotiation window, won’t be made official until the start of the new league year. That happens when free agency starts in earnest at 4 p.m. Wednesday.
Hekker’s departure shape-shifts the team’s specialist room a bit. The long snapper-kicker-punter trio still includes LS JJ Jansen, the franchise’s all-time longest tenured player. But it now includes Martin and kicker Matthew Wright, the kicker the Panthers signed this offseason which signaled an end to the Eddy Piñeiro era in Carolina.
Wright spent time with the Panthers during the 2023 season in a fill-in role — a stop in a career that’s featured nine NFL teams since entering the league in 2019 — and it’s possible the Panthers bring in someone to compete for starting kicker duties.
Hekker, who turned 35 in February, is coming off a lukewarm year in 2024, his third season with Charlotte’s NFL franchise. He finished the regular season with 73 punts — tied for seventh-most in the league — with an average of 45.7 yards per punt (28th). Only 24 of his punts were settled inside the opponent’s 20-yard line (19th). The Oregon State alum finished with a 53.3 punting grade, according to Pro Football Focus, the lowest of his esteemed career.
Hekker’s reputation precedes him. Before arriving in Carolina, he was placed on the NFL’s All-Decade team for the 2010s and earned first-team All-Pro distinctions four times. He also is a Super Bowl champion after winning a title with the Los Angeles Rams in February 2022 — and he owns a Super Bowl record for longest punt in a game (65 yards) in the only other Super Bowl he played in, when the Rams fell to the Patriots in Super Bowl LIII.
He now boasts 45,052 punting yards, which is the most among active players.
Martin, 35, averaged 46.7 yards per punt with a long of 65 in 2024, his third season in Buffalo. The Appalachian State graduate notched 25 “inside-20” punts on the year, too.
This story was originally published March 11, 2025 at 5:54 PM.
