Earliest you'd get a punter?
 

Several things are worth consideration.

1. Tommy Townsend was insanely good the last couple years.

2. Effective punting, especially with a defense as good as ours, is critical.

3. Matt Araiza was a top candidate at one point, but the Chiefs aren't even his first stop since his acquittal. He had a tryout with the Jets in 2023, and they didn't elect to sign him. So, he either got really good in the past year, or he's probably a replacement-level punter, and the Chiefs need a new one.

4. Forward to 20:00 of Brett Kollman's Q&A video:

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That leads to my question:

There's a couple really good punters in this class -- would you invest a pick in one? Would you take your chances in UDFA? Or are you comfortable rolling into the season with a potentially replacement-level punter.

Tommy Townsend was not insanely good the last couple of years. He was pretty much league average last season.

JFC :facepalm:

Why is this the 2nd time that a punter is being brought up this offseason?

We're not spending a draft pick on a ****ing punter.

We have the best punting prospect probably in history on the team already.

But he tried out for the Jets, and they didn't sign him, so clearly he sucks now!

UDFA

Drafting a Kicker is something maybe consider in the 5th onward. Drafting a Punter, on the other hand, is not something I'd ever consider. We don't need either though.

I mean we literally have a guy nicknamed Punt God and he's 23 and cost us a pack of bubble gum

Also - will LRZ be our back up/emergency punter, with his rugby experience?

I know Butker is a FA and will command the same / similar contract to Justin Tucker.

"In 2022, the Ravens signed Tucker to a four-year, $24 million contract extension (with $17.5 million guaranteed)."

2 years down the line from that deal, I'll bet we're looking at a $28MM / $20MM guaranteed across 4 years for Butker.

- SB winning/tying kicks
- SB record setting kick
- AFCCG winning/tying kicks
- Multiple clutch regular season kicks

I think he's probably on track to be a HOF kicker, and I think we hang on to him at least through this next contract window.

LRZ won't be on the roster for any meaningful games IMHO.

I wouldn't be so sure.

This team is pretty damn complete. There aren't a lot of areas on offense and defense that require a lot of draft capital.

Combine that with Toub having as much influence on roster construction as any ST coach in the league, and hey.

I think it would be wise for the team to snag another punter and have them battle it out in camp. I wouldn't put a ton of faith in Araiza. If he was an actual god at punting, he'd be on a roster.

OT, IOL, WR, RB and TE of the future......those all require draft capital.

Interesting. Do you think Colquitt was worth a 3rd? 15 or so years of elite punting.

I mean, I could legitimately see the team take a pick as early as the 4th if the value was right. But I'm just assuming two of the punters on the board are super good.

You're not wrong, but I'd say our hole at punter is bigger than a couple of those, and the ability to fill the need matches to this moment easier than a couple of those, notably TE.

I'm still not sure what logic leads you to believe we even have a hole at punter.

Holy ****, this is the epitome of being obtuse.

Until I know he's good at punting, I can't say he's good at punting.

The last punt I saw him boot was three years ago. The Jets took a look at him and elected to go elsewhere.

lmao buddy, you've got issues.

Who gets angry on an internet message board over punters.

The Jets had just signed Morstead three weeks prior to working out Araiza and were going to be on the hook for 1.1 million in cap whether he kicked for them or not.

He.. is.. on.. a.. roster. OURS. I'm not drawing any conclusions about him because the reeruned jets didn't want him. What have the Jets done lately to make you think "Whoa shit, better go as they go." They are as close to the 0-16 Lions team as they are the prime bellicheck patriots that knew when to hold em and when to fold em.

Nobody is angry. I think this is hilarious and typical of you.

This is maybe the most Direkshun thread of them all. I find it absurd, but do enjoy a lot of your work. Never change buddy.

But come on. What a weird place to doubt the front office lol.

LMAO

I like Direckshun, i really do. Wish he'd post more, matter of fact. This shit makes me laugh. Its part of the reason i like him. I mean...i get it...i guess. But seriously tho....

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The earliest I'd get a punter is the summer of 2025, if Araiza doesn't work out.

What if told you he was on a roster….

Do you think in the past two years that he went from being the greatest college punter / nfl prospect of all time, to not being able to be a top 32 punter, despite having zero injuries in that time?

Do you think Toub / Veach signed him and let Tommy walk without having him come try out so they could evaluate his current ability?

Do you think he’ll fail so spectacularly that we should use a draft pick on a punter instead of a UDFA, despite having the greatest quarterback of all time?

No, I don't.

There is not such an appreciable difference between NFL-caliber punters that it affects games in some meaningful way. The ability to pin a team inside the 20 4 more times a season than any other average guy doesn't mean much. The ability to average 1 more yard per punt doesn't move the needle. It's a fallacy. When I'm home, I'll see if I can find the data on it.

I doubt he forgot how to punt. You don't average over 50 yards per and just forget in a season. Plus he can be a reserve kicker. That's kinda handy.

As for punters, The Athletic reported on it last year before the draft. To quote it, from 1997-2022 only 51 punters were drafted, and of the 36 players that punted in 2022 only 18 were drafted.

Using a draft pick on a punter might be the dumbest use of draft capital on the planet. My 2 cents.

Yeah you just reek of playful energy.

Buddy, don't take this the wrong way, you're going on ignore. I can't envision useful continued dialogue about my favorite team while you're looking to pick fights, even in threads about punters.

We both win. You get to take potshots at me without rebuttal for the rest of time. I get to continue a fulfilling life that is dotted with football conversation without enduring your omnipresent angst.

You get the last word, staylor. Best wishes.

That's all fine and fair.

Nobody else brought him in (that we know of). That's all I'm saying.

Every now and then you get a weirdo unicorn case, where a useful, Super Bowl caliber player is just sitting on the streets looking to sign with a team for pennies, like Donovan Smith. (For the record, I was a doubter about him too, so I'll eat my crow on this just like everybody else does sometimes.)

I just don't think we can count on Araiza to be a Donovan Smith level surprise.

LMAO


https://i.imgur.com/kUs4594.gif

That's fair. That's not what I meant to say, but fair enough.

I actually think the Jets are decently run right now, and (pre-draft) I have them as a Top 3 team in the AFC so long as Aaron Rodgers is healthy.

And to be clear, I'm not saying that the Jets' eval of Araiza is what's driving my skepticism. The fact that (to our knowledge) no other team brought him in says to me that this is either a Donovan Smith-level surprise, or that he's a replacement level punter. The odds suggest he's the latter.

Imagine being this ****ing reeruned then getting your feelings hurt when people tell you you're reeruned.

He didn't just fall out of the sky. He was "sitting on the streets" for a reason, mongoloid.

I don't doubt them? I don't think Veach/Reid have come out saying that Araiza is the punter of the future. He signed for pennies.

I fully believe the Chiefs are going to bring in competition for him.

Yeah, fair enough. I didn't say that properly.

I'm not certain he was the greatest prospect of all time, but he was certainly up there. I just know people who have gone through the turmoil he's gone through and expecting them to remain the same on the other side of it is not a good bet.

Maybe I'll be surprised though. My guess is that the Chiefs bring in a punter for competition. I wouldn't bet on a draft pick myself -- you guys make it sound like I'm betting on it -- but I would make a bet on competition.

I look forward to seeing it.

I think, if you're going to have an elite defense, which the Chiefs may still have even after losing Sneed, having a really good punter enhances them.

51 punters is like a couple a year, isn't it? And if 18 were drafted, that does mean half the league.

It's not some blue moon event.

Your opinion at the end of your post is fair, I just personally disagree.

2038

ROFL

I think you're going to have your socks blown off once preseason starts.

I want you to re-watch this and set your mind at ease.


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Uh, is this for real? How about shortly after never? What are we, the Raiders?

I love how just about everybody shit on this thread, but Direckshun just couldn't handle me specfically doing it.

The Jets are dumbfux and will finish last in their division again because Aaron ****ing Rogers isn't going to save a failure of a franchise.

Only quoting so he sees this and starts to mend relations

Here are EPA-driven assessments that show that there aren't vast differences in EPA by punter, but even when there are they aren't on the field enough plays for it to have a significant cumulative effect throughout a season. A best punter adding 2-3 points per SEASON is not getting you very far. I'll look for other stuff as I can here.

https://harvardsportsanalysis.org/20...f-nfl-punters/

https://www.bigblueview.com/2022/6/1...an-riley-dixon

You don’t know if Araiza is good at punting, but a random rookie we piss away a draft pick on will be?

Does anyone else think its weird that more Punters don't Kick, and vise-versa?

Might be super useful to save one of those roster spots by merging the two.

I always thought that the ability to do both an open a roster spot would be huge. Honestly with as little as punting matters just let your kicker do the best he can.

How did this thread get to so many pages.

"UDFA only. /thread"

I mean, it does matter, there just isn't enough variation among NFL-caliber punters to make an astronomical difference.

We averaged 4 punts per game in 2023. If we're giving up 4-5 yards on average over having a great punter, that's probably not going to lead to many more points against us.

Now if you go ahead and do what you say here, you might be going from a difference of a punter that gets 44 ypp vs 50 ypp and 42 vs 47 net to something a lot worse. If we start handing teams, say 15 yards of extra field position regularly, that's going to result in more points against us. The motions and placement are so different, right, that you'd probably end up with a very below-average player on both fronts.

UDFA

This is the way. I'm confident Araiza will be very good for us but just bring in another UDFA guy to compete. There are 5-10 of those guys sitting around after the draft every year that are reasonably NFL-quality.

I'd say all of these guys are not getting drafted:

Ryan Rekhow, BYU
Tory Taylor, Iowa
Matt Hayball, Vanderbilt
Porter Wilson, Duke
Austin McNamara, Texas Tech
Blake Ochsendorf, Louisiana Tech
Jack Browning, San Diego State
Riley Thompson, Penn State
Oscar Chapman, Auburn

You would think with some dedication to the craft you could get an average NFL kicker to punt that. I'm sure there's more too it I know little to nothing about kicking. It is two completely different motions.

There's been guys to do it in college. I mean, Araiza was a kicker for most of his college career. Browning, his successor more or less, did some kicking. Both are much better punters than kickers.

Or maybe the move would be just have a long legged receiver or something be the punter if its to weird of a crossover for a place kicker. Maybe our new Rugby stud played some soccer too?

Pretty awesome highlights.

I disagree.

LMAO

I need therapy receipts from him before I reconsider.

I mean this with all due respect: I don't think you can measure their effectiveness with this kind of analysis.

I will say that I operate with a specific bias. The typical ways of adding talent will always get a leg up with me over atypical ways of adding talent.

Adding players from the draft and players who've just gotten cut or in free agency make more sense to me than players who have been pulled out of retirement, or been out of the league for an extended period of time. I simply trust the typical ways of adding talent more.

That being said, I recognize that blind spot and that sometimes, the exception will prove me wrong. It's usually, usually a very bad idea to acquire your starting left tackle in May after the draft for like $4m, but the Chiefs pulled that off last year.

So maybe Araiza still has his fastball. But I don't know.

I think this kind of analysis doesn't measure, again, what a very good punter can do for you.

I will bet you {insert bet here} at least one of Rekhow and Taylor get drafted.

Of course. I said not all of that list is getting drafted and those are the ones I'd consider potential NFL guys from this class.

Op is easily the most football dumb poster I've seen on any board

I mean, to be fair, I think you've said something along those lines about all the "armchair GMs" that post in here at one point or another. lol.

He has a right to an opinion, we all do. I think the thought of having a "high quality" punter is kind of old school given how good all special teamers are these days and where we are at as a league with going for it on 4th down and so forth. Not much sense in putting a ton of resources into a guy that's going to make 3-5 plays kicks a game and 10 every year can all get you 44+ yards coming out of college.

Is it just because he's a left footed punter and it looks different or does he take an extra step before punting the ball. It seems like he takes an awfully long time to get the punt off.

I don't recall that. Direction....yup. I actually gave you props in a thread not long ago BTW ROFL

We signed 'the punt god', and we're supposed to be DRAFTING a punter?

I don't get it.

Huh? We dont need to draft or sign a punter we already have one and hes at the very least the 10th best punter in the league. We didn't get the punt god for nothing

They said it without saying it when they let Townsend skate out of KC.

They’ll sign an UDFA or a veteran to have some camp competition for him in case The Dolphin suddenly lost it in the year he took off because he had been accused of doing Dolphin-like things.

**** I love this place.

I know, you give me a little both ways. :)

Direkshun is good people though bro. I disagree with him too, I'm just not shitting down his throat and then pissing on his face for good measure.

Earliest? Next season, after I give the new kid a look.

lol I avoid the main forum mostly bc I feel like all of the threads reach some sort of critical mass threshold where the conversation devolves into two CPers having a shouting match with each other like two middle schoolers on the playground or better yet a challenge to meet at the George Brett statue for a showdown bahahahaha

I appreciate a quality debate, but it's beyond me why those shouting matches are so prevalent.

LOL

Well, everybody was right and wrong.

Rehkow — the punter featured in the OP — is in fact a Chief now, competition for Araiza. (Tory Taylor was taken in the 4th.)

He was taken as a UDFA, however. No pick was needed.

Andy loves his BYU guys!