It’s rare to see NFL teams draft punters, let alone trade up to do so in the fifth round, but that’s what Seattle did to acquire Dickson, making a move in the 2018 draft in order to acquire the Australian punter who was coming off a standout career at Texas that saw him earn unanimous first-team All-America honors while winning the Ray Guy Award as the nation’s top punter.  

And that trade to add Dickson paid off quickly for the Seahawks, with the rookie punter earning Associated Press first-team All-Pro honors and a Pro Bowl selection in 2018. His standout rookie season was made all the more impressive by the fact that Dickson was stepping into some very big shoes that year, having taken over the job from fan favorite Jon Ryan, who held the job for the previous decade before Dickson’s arrival.  

“It was something that I was battling for every day, and I wanted to win the spot more than anything,” Dickson said after Ryan was released during training camp in 2018 when it became apparent Dickson was going to win the job. “But it was surprisingly more bittersweet than anything, just because Jon was such a great mentor to me when he was here. He was probably one of the funniest people I’ve ever met. So, yeah, it was a little bittersweet. But I’m super excited.”

After growing up playing Australian Rules Football, Dickson only began dabbling in American football in 2015 when, as a 19-year-old, he took part in the Prokick Australia program in Melbourne, a move that paved the way for him to move to America to punt at Texas. Yet despite being relatively new to the sport, Dickson has thrived since arriving in the NFL.  

Through the 2024 season, Dickson’s 48.2 career punt average ranks third in NFL history, and in addition to being the Seahawks career leader in that statistical category, he also ranks first in net average (42.9) and second behind Ryan in punts down inside the 20 with 212.  

"A guy like Mike, he constantly puts the defense in a great position by pinning them down inside the 10," former Seahawks linebacker Bobby Wagner said.

And much like his predecessor, Dickson has shown on multiple occasions throughout his career that he is better all-around athlete and football player than people might give him credit for given the position he plays.  

As a rookie, Dickson made a bold and off-script decision to run a ball out of his own end zone for a game-clinching first down rather than, as was planned, run around to take time off the clock before stepping out of the end zone for a safety. The play, jokingly dubbed the “Aussie sweep” by then Seahawks coach Pete Carroll, demonstrated Dickson’s feel for the game in that split-second decision, as well as his toughness to absorb a hit as he reached the first-down marker.  

“That was a really terrific competitor, seeing the moment and seizing it,” Carroll said after that win in Detroit. "It was an incredibly beautiful play. Sometimes you have to improvise and really good players seem to do it at the right time… I thought it was awesome. I can't love a play more than that. It was like he went against all tradition, all thinking and everything. But he saw a situation and he took advantage of it. And I think that's what great players do, they surprise you sometimes. That was truly a surprise."

Three years later, Dickson pulled off another play that showed off his athletic ability as well as his instincts, scooping up the loose ball on the run after a blocked punt before kicking the ball again for a 68-yard punt, a play that came to be known simply as the “double punt.”

"I don't know this for sure, but that might have been one of the great plays I've ever seen a punter make," Carroll said. "I mean, one of the great kicking plays in the history of the league, and I've been around a lot longer than you guys and seen a lot of football and never seen that happen before. What a remarkable play it was."