Earliest you'd get a punter?

[Direckshun]

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:



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.

[staylor26]

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

[Hog's Gone Fishin]

Originally Posted by Direckshun

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.

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.

[Dunerdr]

Originally Posted by staylor26

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

Only quoting so he sees this and starts to mend relations

[kccrow]

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

[RealSNR]

Originally Posted by Direckshun

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.

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

[Couch-Potato]

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.

[Dunerdr]

Originally Posted by Couch-Potato

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.

[Chargem]

How did this thread get to so many pages.

"UDFA only. /thread"

[kccrow]

Originally Posted by Dunerdr

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.

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.

[Buehler445]

UDFA

[kccrow]

Originally Posted by Buehler445

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

[Dunerdr]

Originally Posted by kccrow

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.

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.

[kccrow]

Originally Posted by Dunerdr

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.

[Dunerdr]

Originally Posted by kccrow

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?

[Direckshun]

Originally Posted by Dante84

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.

Pretty awesome highlights.