Chiefs rookie review: Draft class comes up big against Texans

Tommy Townsend

During the offseason, Kansas City parted ways with its longest tenured player in punter Dustin Colquitt. After 15 years with the team, the team said goodbye to their longtime special teams staple and instead chose to move forward with a rookie.

At the time, fans were upset given that Colquitt had volunteered to play for the veteran minimum. Why were the defending champions going to risk losing the solid play of a savvy veteran in favor of some young kid with no NFL experience to save a few hundred thousand dollars?

While undrafted rookie free agent Tommy Townsend has a long way to go to make Chiefs fans forget about Colquitt, he certainly proved he has the potential to do so in the Chiefs’ win over the Texans in their Week 1 matchup.

Townsend was asked to punt the ball three times, and he averaged a solid 45.3 yards per punt on the evening. More important is the fact that two of Townsend’s three punts landed inside of the 10-yard line. His first punt landed beautifully right at the goal line, and while the special teams unit was unable to down the ball prior to it reaching the end zone, if the former Florida Gator consistently kicks balls like that, many will end up downed inside the five. The second punt, too, was excellent and placed the ball inside the 10.

Given the Chiefs offense, and especially with a newfound running game that seems likely to decrease overall possessions, it’s unlikely Townsend is in line for a heavy workload. But, if he can repeat his first game’s appearance week in and week out, we’ll all understand why the team opted for the cheaper contract.