The longest-tenured player on the Baltimore Ravens is hanging up his cleats.

Punter Sam Koch declared his retirement on Thursday right after 16 seasons in the NFL. The Ravens formally positioned Koch on the reserve/retired list, for each the league transaction wire.

Koch, 39, performed his total occupation in Baltimore after staying picked in the sixth round of the 2006 NFL Draft out of the College of Nebraska. Earning a Pro Bowl nod in 2015, Koch’s 1,168 profession punts arrived out to an average of 45.3 yards for each punt. Koch also served as the team’s key holder on subject intention attempts and was the kickoff professional major up to the Ravens’ championship-winning operate to Tremendous Bowl XLVII.

Actively playing in 256 job video games for the Ravens, Koch retires as the franchise’s all-time chief in online games played.

“You hardly ever definitely go into it considering that a single of your greatest draft picks ever is heading to be a punter, but in this scenario it can be accurate,” Ravens standard supervisor Eric DeCosta explained of Koch. “It truly is a special day, a celebration of a person of the very best Ravens you can expect to at any time see, and I am just very pleased to have watched him all these yrs.”

A contingency program experienced by now been in location in advance of Koch’s retirement as the Ravens picked Penn State’s Jordan Stout in the 2022 NFL Draft.