Marquette King enters "punter's paradise" with an axe to grind

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — The last few days have been different for Marquette King.

“If you’re put in a UFC game and you get punched, and it’s like you’re in a daze before you get knocked out. That’s what it felt like,” he said, describing how the past week has felt.

The reason King hasn’t had a pleasant week is because last Friday the Oakland Raiders, the team he’s been with his entire career dating back to 2012, unexpectedly cut him. He wasn’t given a reason as to why and never even met the Raiders’ new head coach Jon Gruden.

“I never got a chance to talk to him. I just saw him on car commercials and stuff,” King said Thursday afternoon. “But I’ll definitely get to see him two times a year.”

The reason King will get to see Gruden, and his former team, twice a year is because he signed a three-year contract worth up to $7 million with the Denver Broncos on Thursday.

“I just felt Denver was the best team to go to. The people that I was familiar with that are here with the organization—you get a home-y feeling when you get here,” he said, explaining why he chose to sign with a former division rival. “Also I think it’s somewhat of a revenge factor into it. A mixture of some of everything.”

After spending his rookie season on the injured reserve, King took the punting game by storm—averaging an NFL-best 48.9 yards per punt in 2013. Since then, King’s finished in the top six in yards per punt twice, each coming in the last two seasons.

Riley Dixon, on the other hand—Denver’s punter the last two seasons—finished with the 17th-best average two years ago and the 14th-best average last year.

And King’s stats may even get better in Denver.

“When it comes to punting out here, the ball definitely travels a lot further. There is a lot more that I can do with the altitude,” he said, explaining the difference of playing in Denver compared to at sea level with the Raiders. “I’ve always enjoyed punting out here with the altitude just because the ball travels further. It’s something I have to get used to. I definitely have to get a feeling for my leg strength when it comes to putting the ball inside the corners. Denver is a punter’s paradise.”

If one was to venture a guess as to why he was let go in Oakland, they would probably come around King’s eccentric nature as a punter. The dancing, the taunting, the social media activity, it’s certainly not what people are used to when it comes to a specialist.

While he will be changing jerseys as he gets settled into the punter’s paradise a mile above sea level, though, one thing that won’t change is his demeanor on the field.

“No such thing as too much [personality],” he said, showing off the swagger that is often showcased on Sundays. “I’m going to still have fun. I’m going to still dance. I’m going to still celebrate. I’m going to be me.”

Last year, King’s only penalty for excessive celebration—the third of his career—came against the Broncos. Additionally, one of King’s go-to moves when he played against Denver was to pretend to ride a bucking bronco after nailing a punt.

“It’s time to find a new celebration because that’s when I was trying to troll y’all,” he said with a laugh. “Now I’ve got to find something else. But it’s definitely going to be a nice little dance. We’ll figure something out.”

At 29-years old, King is well aware he needs to keep his composure and not hurt the team during his celebrations, and it’s something he’s worked on throughout his career. With that being said, he still plans to “do his thing” with his new team.

“The cool thing about the Broncos—the people that work at the Broncos—is they encourage you to be yourself. That’s real cool,” he said. “Players play a lot better when they can let their hair down and be themselves. It’s cool. They encourage it.”

Now that he’s selected his next team and is ready to get to work, all that is left is deciding his next number since the number he wore in Oakland, No. 7, is retired. That is, if he can’t convince John Elway to let him wear it.

“I’ve got to take [Elway] out on a nice steak dinner, but I don’t think that’s going to work. I was thinking about getting him a helicopter or something. A big gift,” he said, showing off his big personality. “But I don’t think he’s going to give that seven up. So I’ve got to figure out another number.”