The Kansas City Chiefs recently added punter Johnny Townsend, the brother of the team’s current punter Tommy Townsend, to the practice squad.
It was a head-scratching move for many fans as the Chiefs already have the younger Townsend brother as their punter and holder. Teams don’t typically have multiple specialists, even on the practice squad, without a recurrent injury or something of the like. When special teams coordinator Dave Toub spoke with the media on Thursday, he explained the decision in detail, citing the uncertainty surrounding COVID-19 as a driving factor.
“Well, Johnny (Townsend), you know he’s a good punter coming out a few years back, Raiders drafted him,” Toub said. “We liked him coming out…. he was on the street and he was available as somebody that can come in and it was a really good idea by (Brett) Veach to bring a guy in just in case the COVID thing hits us. Hits one of our guys, that we have a guy that’s in the building tested, that we can just plug in there and plug and play. He’s a guy that can come in and punt for us, be a holder. If (Harrison) Butker went down with COVID, if he was out, then we would probably kick with Tommy (Townsend) and then Johnny would be the holder. They’re interchangeable parts, one guy can do a lot of things and that’s why we have him here. It’s a pretty good idea by Veach.”
Johnny is basically an insurance policy in the times of COVID-19. It gives the Chiefs flexibility if Tommy or Butker were placed on the reserve/COVID-19 list. Even in the event of an injury, it leaves the Chiefs prepared. Typically, with an injury, you’d have the time to get a player in the building and up to speed ahead of a game. That’s not something that would happen this year due to the COVID-19 screening period.
Toub also made it very clear, this isn’t about any sort of struggles going on with Butker and PATs.
“We would just work him in practice,” Toub explained. “He’s a practice squad player that we would work in practice, in case of emergency guy, strictly. We would never – I don’t think there would ever be a situation where he would come in for Tommy (Townsend) unless we needed it, unless we had to have it. But it’s a good luxury to have a guy like that that we can plugin and I’ll tell you, he’s a really good fit too. There’s no pressure.”
It’s a bit of a unique situation having two players who are brothers that play the same position. Toub isn’t concerned about the dynamic at all.
“I mean obviously, he’s going to support his brother, support Tommy (Townsend) in every way,” Toub said. “It’s a really good situation for us. I’m not sure that there’s ever been brothers at one position like that, at the same position as a punter/kicker on the same team, so it’s kind of a unique deal as well.”
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