One of the downsides of winning championships is that key players are sometimes too expensive for a team on the open market. That’s exactly what happened when the Kansas City Chiefs let punter Tommy Townsend go in March after he signed a solid contract with the Houston Texans.
A few months into the Matt Araiza era, however, things are looking stable, including the first two games of the regular season in which the former San Diego State star appeared five times.
In a conversation with the media this week, special teams coordinator Dave Toub analyzed Araiza’s season so far and provided a progress report of sorts.
“Yeah, he’s only had five punts in two games so far, but his first game with the three punts, he had two touchbacks and then he came up with the third punt, which was a great punt, the 4.94 that we tackled for a two-yard gain,” Toub said. “He only had two in that game and the goal last week was to have no touchbacks and he did that. Then Josh (Williams) made a great play at the goal line and obviously knocked the ball back for us, that was a great play. The combination of him laying the ball up and then the coverage doing their job down there is going to make his job a lot easier. He actually improved from game one to game two.”
Heading into Week 3 against the Atlanta Falcons, Araiza ranks seventh in the NFL with a 51.2-yard punt average. He has three passes that have landed inside the 20-yard line, but his net average of just 40.8 yards is behind most players in the league. Part of that is just sampling math, especially when you consider Kansas City’s decision to punt from the Baltimore Ravens’ 40-yard line on the opening play. Araiza can’t create yards that don’t exist.
However, he can continue to improve if he gets more opportunities. Advanced metrics are merely decent for him at the moment. According to Focus on professional football According to tracking data, Araiza’s average hang time of 4.54 seconds ranks 15th out of 34 punters. He is 18th in punter EPA at 0.03, according to Puntalytics Database. The more punts there are, the more solid his numbers will become in both directions. After two games, Araiza is either an average or slightly above average punter.
Araiza has one of the strongest legs in the NFL and at 24 years old, his best performances should still be ahead of him. He’s still young in his career, so it’s a good starting point with room to grow and build a solid foundation. Toub seems to agree.
Considering his price for the 2024-25 season, the Chiefs can get by with Araiza.
