The Buffalo Bills’ position battle at punter has come to an early end.
The team announced on Monday that Matt Haack has been released. That leaves rookie Matt Araiza as the Bills’ starting punter heading into the 2022 NFL season.
Araiza, a sixth-round pick at the recent draft, was viewed as the favorite to win the competition all offseason. Not only is it rare for a team to use a draft pick on any kicker, Haack had a poor season in 2021.
Because of that, Haack agreed to a revised contract this spring After that and once Araiza was selected, the writing appeared to be on the wall for him.
Buffalo’s actions in their first two preseason games of the summer also indicated a heavy favoriting of Araiza.
In the Bills’ first two exhibition games, Araiza took all holding duties. That’s important because it was the big road block in Araiza’s way to win the position battles against Haack.
During his college career, Araiza was both kicker and punter for his team so he did not have experience holding at all. That is a job he would have to master for placekicker Tyler Bass, and evidently he accomplished that.
Along with releasing Haack, Buffalo also cut receiver Tavon Austin. That leaves the Bills at 82 players on their roster–NFL teams have to be down to 80 by the next roster deadline on Tuesday.
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