The competition to be Dustin Colquitt’s replacement as the Chiefs punter appears to be between Tyler Newsome and Tommy Townsend.
Newsome is a former Notre Dame punter who was in camp with the Chargers last fall.
Townsend played for the Florida Gators last season, and received a contract with $82,500 guaranteed, including a $7,500 signing bonus, Tom Pelissero of the NFL Network reported.
In his analysis of Townsend at the NFL Combine, Lance Zierlein of NFL.com noted, “he’s a decent directional punter with the athletic ability to pull of a fake punt here or there.”
Gators Football tweeted that Townsend had one of the fastest 40-yard times at the NFL Combine … at his position.
OK, here’s a caveat: only seven punters took part in the Combine, but Townsend ran the ball three times for the Gators last season. In the 2018 season, he ripped off a long run on a fake against Vanderbilt.
The Chiefs don’t run a lot of fakes (Colquitt had three career rushing attempts for negative-3 yards), so they must have liked something other than Townsend’s ball-carrying ability.
Zierlein noted these positive attributes for Townsend:
— Good leg action on his punts
— Above average hangtime as collegian
— Hit almost 60% of his pooch punts inside 10-yard line
— Very good athlete to handle poor snaps and fake punts
The latter could be important in Townsend’s positional battle as Colquitt was the holder for kicker Harrison Butker.
Townsend explained his outlook on punting with Sports Illustrated’s “All Gators.”
“I approach punting with a completely different mind-set than any other punter in the league and any other punter in college. I have a very aggressive mind-set, I think I am more of a dog,” Townsend told the website.
“It just comes natural to me from playing safety in high school, I’ve always been extremely competitive. I don’t back down from competition, I’m always looking to get better and take down the guys that are in front of me.”
