2022 NFL draft: #Bills punter Matt Araiza motivated after down the board:
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The Bills made some buzz with their selections in the 2022 NFL Draft and did so on day three, no less.
With the first pick of the sixth round the team took left-footed and right-handed college punting sensation Matt Araiza off the board, a player who was considered by many to be the top talent at his position going into the draft.
During the 2021 college football season as a redshirt junior at San Diego State, Araiza set NCAA records with a 51.2-yard average and 36 punts that went for 50-plus yards, 17 of which were good for a minimum of 60 yards, two that went at least 80 yards, and one of which that went for 86 yards.
He won the 2021 Ray Guy Award as the best collegiate punter and was named a first-team All-American and the Mountain West Conference Special Teams Player of the Year.
Still, NFL teams viewed him as a project, resulting in a slide down the draft board to the sixth round, during which two other punters were selected ahead of him.
“The people who know me know that I take a lot of things very personal,” Araiza said while addressing the media for the first time after being selected. “We’ll just say I have a lot of motivation to dominate this season.”
Even still, he realizes he has some work to do to compete in the NFL.
“I think every aspect of the pro-level I need to continue to work on,” he said. “I’m by no means a complete player yet, but I’m excited to get into the building and work with the staff and work with the other teams and get ready to just help the team as much as we can on special teams.”
He played as a full-time punter for only one season in college, so it says a lot that he was able to accomplish what he did. He started as a place-kicker and went on to set a San Diego State-record 22 field goals, was perfect on extra points in 2019, and placed 78.5% of his kickoffs in the end zone for touchbacks.
While he has the leg strength and experience at all three kicking positions, he’ll need to improve solely as a punter in holding, hang time, and punts in short-field situations to help give the Bills offense more possession opportunities.
“My first goal is to be a starter as a punter and a holder. That’s more on my mind right now,” Araiza said. “I’ve mostly put field goals to the side, at least for this pre-draft process, because I had more things I needed to change about my punting game. I needed to add hang time and add direction and become more of a pro-style punter. So I definitely had more work to do in the punting department.”
The first player off the board at his position, Penn State’s Jordan Stout whom the Bills had a pre-draft visit, was taken by Baltimore in the fourth round using the pick they acquired from Buffalo via their first-round swap to move up and select CB Kaiir Elam.
The team that benefited from the slide down the board was the Bills, a team that prioritizes player development and has worked to develop power and distance players like K Tyler Bass and QB Josh Allen.
“That’s maybe one of the things that I’m most excited for is that I know that I have so much to learn and so much to get better at. I think that was my biggest upside as a player, going into this draft, is that I don’t believe that I’ve really scratched the surface of what I’ll be able to do, so I’m really excited about getting to Buffalo and getting to work.”
As he had no experience holding in high school or in college, he’ll need to learn to develop as one for Bass on field goals and extra-point attempts. He’d worked out back home in San Diego pre-draft with former Chargers kicker Nick Novak and held for Seahawks kicker Jason Myers, beginning to learn what kickers are looking for in holding.
GM Brandon Brandon Beane believes he’s in a good position to learn from current Bills punter Matt Haack as well.
“Some kickers are late getting it down, late getting it the way they want it, give them the laces,” Beane said while addressing the media. “You know that’s the great thing about Matt Haack is that he’s an elite holder.”
Araiza appears confident in his ability to adapt to holding as well.
“I’m very confident in my hands, I’m confident in myself as an athlete and I’m someone who cares a lot about the success of my team,” added Araiza. “I think all of those qualities will translate well to holding.”
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82-YARD PUNT ALERT
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