The Kansas City Chiefs are entering the upcoming season with a new punter for the first time since 2005. A position firmly held by fan-favorite Dustin Colquitt, up until the 38-year-old was waived this past offseason.
The Chiefs have since turned the punting duties over to 23-year old undrafted rookie Tommy Townsend. Special teams coordinator Dave Toub fielded questions Thursday about the team’s new punter during his training camp press conference.
“We originally saw Tommy at the combine, and I felt like he was the best punter at the combine. We had a draftable grade on him,” said Toub. “Obviously he wasn’t drafted, so he was a guy that we went after real strong, and those guys did a great job of being able to get him in our building. I’m really happy with his performance so far. He’s done a great job. He’s really consistent. He really bombs the ball. He gets the ball off quick, he’s athletic. He’s everything you’re looking for.”
Townsend played collegiately starting at the University of Tennessee before transferring to the University of Florida. He recorded a career-long 71-yard punt during his college tenure and has been infamous for pulling off fake punts during games. It’s a skill that could add an extra wrinkle to Toub’s game plan, but for now, he seems focused on getting the rookie settled with the basics in camp.
“We don’t have less time at all, we have the same amount of time that we’ve always had.” said Toub ”In fact, the ramp-up period was really good because the ramp-up period allowed us to put in what we would normally do during the OTAs and those things. So, that was good time for us. Being able to teach fundamentals for those young guys is critical. Now, we’re getting into more of the team and the scheme stuff of it and now they put all those fundamentals together and we get to see what kind of football players these guys are. Like I said, it’s unfortunate for those guys that there’s no preseason games, but we have to do the best we can in the team periods that we have to evaluate these guys in and make decisions. Now, the other guys are going to have a leg up. The guys that we’ve had before that are game-proven, those guys are going to have a leg up, and that’s just the way it is.”
Colquitt was tremendous in the Kansas City community, regularly nominated for the Walter Payton Man of The Year award. His consistency on the field and off the field, whenever his number was called, is another trademark that Townsend will be expected to pick up this season and during the course of his career.
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