The Kansas City Chiefs‘ special teams units have been a thing of beauty lately, especially during the team’s four-game winning streak. On Thursday, the NFL tipped its cap to one of the team’s specialists by giving punter Tommy Townsend the award for Special teams Player of the Month in the AFC.
During this four-game streak, the Chiefs special teams have come in handy on multiple occasions. Townsend has been a stellar and steady performer as a punter who can do it all, from booting the ball with great strength to pinning a team near their own goal line with incredible accuracy.
During the last month, Townsend punted 10 times total but six of those landed inside the opponents 20 and he held an incredible average of 54.9 yards/punt. His longest was a 68-yard punt for the month, and his net yardage on that 55-yard average is still 50.7, which also shows the effectiveness of Townsend’s hang time as well as the team’s coverage units to tackle well at the spot where it landed.
Townsend began the month by winning the weekly version of the award after the team’s home win over the Green Bay Packers in Week 9.
The Chiefs first signed Townsend to a nice signing bonus after he went undrafted in 2020 out of the University of Florida. The team also brought in Tyler Newsome to compete for the role out of Notre Dame, but COVID restrictions kept any real in-person competition from happening and the Chiefs instead decided to go all-in on Newsome. That decision now looks brilliant in hindsight as Townsend has blossomed in this second season.