Kansas City Chiefs work out free agent punter

For reasons unknown to us, the Kansas City Chiefs worked out free agent punter Taylor Symmank on Friday, formerly of the Minnesota Vikings.

The Kansas City Chiefs brought in free agent punter Taylor Symmank to work out on Friday at Arrowhead Stadium, per NFL analyst Aaron Wilson. Symmank was formerly a punter for the Minnesota Vikings this last offseason, having signed with them from January through September.

Symmank was last a punter at Texas Tech and would have been teammates with Chiefs rookie quarterback Patrick Mahomes. Symmank was the team’s punter from 2013-2015 and averaged 46 yards per punt his senior season at Tech. He was honorable mention All Big 12 in 2014, but there are plenty of other punters with similar stats and even more accolades.

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Reading into this makes me think a couple things:

1. The Chiefs are preparing for life without Dustin Colquitt (at some point) and will likely think seriously this offseason about the cost of having the most expensive punter on the roster. There are certainly many, many pros to having Colquitt on the roster, a consummate professional who likely has many quality years left as a punter, and a fixture at the position for the Chiefs since he was taken in the third round of the 2005 NFL Draft.
2. Depending on when the Chiefs decide to move on from Colquitt (or vice versa), the front office will want to know all of their options in terms of replacing him, not only with familiar veterans or hot prospects but also under-the-radar performers, perhaps like Symmank, who remain available but could work in the right system.
3. It’s likely also true that Dave Toub had a say in this one. The team let it be known that Toub had Harrison Butker ranked as the top kicking prospect in this year’s class, so it’s easy to assume that they also asked him about promising punters. Perhaps Toub likes something about Symmank. Then again, all of this is conjecture.

No matter the reason for bringing Symmank in (maybe Colquitt is sick and we just haven’t heard it yet), the Chiefs tinkering around at the punter position is due diligence on what is going to be a tough decision at some point in the near future.