Once we correct the receiver room, we will be back to not punting very much anyway. Tommy seemed surprised he actually had to earn those game checks this year lol. [Reply]
Originally Posted by chiefzilla1501:
Isn't that the same data that had him as the second best punter last season?
Probably.
And I believe in the bottom 1/3 the year before that. Which is precisely my point. There's never been the sort of AJ Cole level of consistency at the top of the league from him. And punters are a lot like relievers in that the very tip top is usually kinda stable (again, guys like Cole) whereas the rest of it is volatile.
He was below average in 2020 and 2021, slightly above average in 2023 (and 15th by their Punter EPA rating).
3/4 of the seasons he's been in the league, including his most recent one, he's been slightly below average to slightly above average. It's more likely that he's just an average punter than it is he's 'one of the best in the league'. [Reply]
Originally Posted by DJ's left nut:
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.
If Townsend being gone is a foregone conclusion thats fine. I don't have an issue paying butker and Townsend to have the best possible kicking game. I don't think he's nearly as replaceable as we want him to be nor should we minimize the importance of a holder especially when we're bringing in a guy with no experience doing it.
But yeah if it's about money, I get it and we'll make it work. It's intriguing but still risky [Reply]
Originally Posted by DJ's left nut:
I don't think you'll need to beat Tucker by that much but hey, if that's what it costs I'd be fine with it.
I've said this before but I've never understood the "Don't pay a kicker" or "Don't draft a kicker" thing. Those guys generate points. They're not punters - they friggen matter out there. And Butker has saved us innumerable times over the last several years. He's completely unflappable and I think if we needed a 65 yarder to win/tie in the post-season over the next 4-6 years, he'd hit it.
That's worth a fair chunk. I'd be just fine adding 5 years to the back of his present deal to take him through his age 34 season. 5/35 with, say, $15 million in guarantees? Yeah - done. I'm in.
A large number of games and especially playoff games tend to be 7 points or less. Great kickers are weapons. Look at the Buffalo playoff game when Bass missed and ended their season. Look at Butker in the SB when he went out and bested Mooney’s SB record kick. Heck KC wins easily if Mooney doesn’t nail not one, but two 50+ yard FGs. Butler has been nails on so many critical FGs over the years that KC would be foolish to not keep him. [Reply]
Originally Posted by tredadda:
A large number of games and especially playoff games tend to be 7 points or less. Great kickers are weapons. Look at the Buffalo playoff game when Bass missed and ended their season. Look at Butker in the SB when he went out and bested Mooney’s SB record kick. Heck KC wins easily if Mooney doesn’t nail not one, but two 50+ yard FGs. Butler has been nails on so many critical FGs over the years that KC would be foolish to not keep him.
I still think it's kinda funny that if Butker sticks around in KC for as long as Mahomes, it would be Butker that's possibly the NFL all-time leader in playoff games played... [Reply]
Originally Posted by IowaHawkeyeChief:
He was at a college party and left an hour before the alleged "rape" happened. Prosecutors didn't charge anyone as the defendent lied about her age and seemed to be performing acts in the video willingly.
There was still a civil lawsuit against the men, including Araiza, despite it being shown he wasn't there. He filed a defamation suit against the women. She released him from the civil litigation in December and he dropped his suit in return. She knew he did nothing. It seems he is a good kid by all accounts and got caught up in this because of his notoriety of being the Punt God. https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com...uit-settlement
There is video that is supposed to be from the party with her sitting on (I believe) his lap. She's very very drunk and bragging about her "body count", but also hints at having sex starting really young (or something like that), to which the guy she's sitting on says "I'm not trying to hear that!"
By all accounts he was gone by the time the gang bang happened. I think he had had sex with her before that though.
So it seems like he might have had some bad judgement, but not worth getting your career ruined over. [Reply]
