The Buffalo Bills made the decision to release rookie punter Matt Araiza on Saturday night after he was accused in a gang-rape lawsuit from his time at San Diego State. General manager Brandon Beane told reporters during a press conference that the team is still piecing together details from the allegations and attempting to find out what happened.
But given the circumstances, the Bills decided to cut Araiza and let him “go handle his situation.”
There were questions about whether the Bills knew about these accusations before the draft when they selected him in the sixth round – later than many expected Araiza to be drafted. Beane cleared things up Saturday by telling reporters that the team did not know about it, nor did the league.
Beane also said the Bills reached out to more than 10 teams, and none of them knew about the accusations.
Bills GM Brandon Beane on whether they knew at the time of the draft "We did not know about this and the league did not know about this."
"We've reached out to double digit teams, and no one knew about this"
— Joe Buscaglia (@JoeBuscaglia) August 27, 2022
Pre-draft, Araiza was viewed as the best punter in the class, with some projecting him to go as early as the third or fourth round. He slipped to the sixth and wasn’t even the first – or second – punter drafted.
Now with Araiza being released, the Bills don’t have a punter on the 80-man roster.
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