Chiefs sign former Bills Punter Matt Araiza

[DJ's left nut]

Originally Posted by chiefzilla1501

They better be 200% sure he can hold. Justin Tucker kept his punter around for an eternity because he refused to change holders. Doesn't make me comfortable that he was learning to hold for a very short buffalo training camp.

Also, as of now we know the dude has an unreal leg. Still a lot to prove that he's a better all around punter. Touchback rate isn't great for a league and a team that will need a lot of shorter field punts. I mean I guess it's worth a shot to see how much he can flash in the next few months before you make a decision on Townsend. But I don't think we'll have nearly enough time to know what we have before we make that call on Townsend

The call has been made on Townsend. He's a pending FA who hired Drew Rosenhause. He's gone.

Now there may still be a call to make between Araiza and some fungible UDFA or SFA competition - sure. And when it gets made, that's fine too.

Because all we've lost is a league average punter with consistency issues who was mis-hitting the shit out of about half his punts in the post-season. Credit to him for getting a tough snap down but there are bad snaps every single week and most holders get them down.

You know what Matt Ariaza will be doing for the 40 hours/wk his teammates are out there in pads? Learning how to hold. WTF else does he have to do?

That's why punters are almost always the holders now. Practice time limitations mean that you need your QB2 out there running scout team against your defense instead of hanging out with the STs bozos.

But your punter? He's just hanging out. So you send him out there with the long-snapper and teach him how to {checks notes} catch a snap.

It'll be fine.