Chiefs punter Tommy Townsend has it pretty good

The Kansas City Chiefs don’t have to punt very often thanks to Patrick Mahomes. That means Tommy Townsend has it good, but he’s still pretty good himself.

Imagine being a punter on a team whose offense is led by Patrick Mahomes. Every Sunday that’s what Tommy Townsend gets to experience. The very nature of being a punter is somewhat demoralizing—you only have a job because your team has failed to make progress on offense. Yet, when it comes to being the punter for the Kansas City Chiefs, life may not be that bad.

For example, sometimes it can probably feel like Townsend is the “holder” more than the punter. Former Kansas City Chiefs punter Dustin Colquitt got to experience that first hand one time when he expected to go out for a punt but instead had to quickly find his gloves to line up for a point after.

Other times, Tommy Townsend probably feels like the second-best quarterback in the division when he’s asked to use his arm instead of his foot.

But when Tommy actually does have to do his job, punting, he does a pretty darn good job at it. The man with the lengthy locks has been an incredible find and in just two seasons has secured himself as a bonafide Toubite special teamer.

I’m going to be honest, when the Chiefs let Colquitt go, I was worried. That man had been such a consistent punter for so long (and at times it felt like he was the best player on the team), it really felt like it was going to be a while before we had a solid punting unit again.

But with all due respect to Dustin, Tommy has been awesome. He and Harrison Butker have added a spark of youthful energy to the special teams and Tommy seems to hit punts like these with ease:

He’s currently sporting just under a 50-yard average punt, which is pretty impressive and no doubt helps the defense when the offense does stumble. Luckily for him, the offense doesn’t stumble all that often. Hopefully, that trend continues this season and we see Tommy holding for PATs more than we see him lined up to punt.