Tommy Townsend will be the Kansas City Chiefs punter
By Matt Conner
The Chiefs have eliminated all competition for punter Tommy Townsend.
On Wednesday, the Kansas City Chiefs placed several players on waivers to trim their overall roster count down to 80. In doing so, they released former Notre Dame punter Tyler Newsome, which means that rookie free agent Tommy Townsend is set to be the Chiefs new punter for 2020.
The last time the Chiefs had a punter other than Dustin Colquitt was the 2004 season, when the team utilized three different punters in Stephen Cheek, Jason Baker and Nick Murphy. The following offseason, the Chiefs decided to get rid of any further punting issues by drafting Colquitt in the third round.
From there, Colquitt held the job for an incredible 15 seasons. The Chiefs decided earlier this offseason to move on from Colquitt, presumably to go younger and cheaper at the position. They’d brought in competition last offseason for the first time in Colquitt’s career with the signing of Jack Fox, so in some ways, the proverbial writing was on the wall.
The Chiefs were likely going to watch Newsome and Townsend battle it out during rookie minicamps and the like, but the ongoing global COVID-19 pandemic set aside any ability to let actual on-field competition aid their decisions. Instead, the Chiefs are relying on the confidence that special teams coordinator Dave Toub has in Townsend and in his solid tape from his days at the University of Florida. Toub referred to him as the best punter coming out of this year’s draft class in an interview earlier this offseason.
Townsend averaged 44.8 yards per punt in two years as the Gators punter.