The Kansas City Chiefs continue to add depth to their roster, and this time they’ve added some competition among the specialists.
The Chiefs have agreed to terms with former Notre Dame punter Tyler Newsome on a one-year deal, as first reported by Desmond Talbot of NFL Draft Diamonds and confirmed by Kansas City Star beat reporter Herbie Teope.
It’s no secret that Dustin Colquitt is approaching the end of his career. He’s the longest-tenured player on the Chiefs’ roster and turns 38 years old in May. There’s no indication that he’s set to retire, but the Chiefs need to continue to prepare for his eventual departure. Last season, they brought in undrafted free agent punter Jack Fox to compete with Colquitt. Ultimately, Colquitt beat Fox out and retained his job for the Chiefs’ championship season.
Newsome is known best for his impressive show of strength at his pro day, posting 30 bench press repetitions of 225. To put things into perspective, that’s more repetitions than Chris Jones, Frank Clark, Mike Pennel, Derrick Nnadi, Alex Okafor, Khalen Saunders, and Tanoh Kpassagnon posted at their respective combine or pro days. Only practice squad defensive lineman, Devaroe Lawrence had more bench press repetitions than Newsome at 31.
The 6-2 and 210-pound punter has a career average of 44 yards per punt. He accumulated a total of over 9,000 punting yards in his four-year career with Notre Dame. A total of 75 of his 225 career punts with Notre Dame landed within the 20-yard line.
Newsome spent some time in the 2019 offseason with the Los Angeles Chargers but was released during 53-man roster cuts.