Chiefs could have another half of another NFL punting duo

After seeing his older brother Johnny being drafted by the Oakland Raiders in the fifth round of the 2018 NFL Draft, Kansas City Chiefs punter Tommy Townsend felt he had a good chance of making it to the NFL.

And why not? He had followed in his brother’s footsteps since high school. During Johnny’s first year, the Braves of William R. Boone High School in Orlando needed a punter. After receiving lessons from one of their father’s friends – a former Florida state bettor – Johnny got the job. Soon he received scholarship offers that led him to the Florida Gators and eventually to the NFL, where he played a season for the Raiders in 2018.

Tommy liked the look of this.

“I kind of decided, ‘You know, I can do that too. Why can’t I do it? So I kind of followed in his footsteps and here we are, ”he told reporters in May.

But after a season in Tennessee (the alma mater of former Chiefs punter Dustin Colquitt and his Brother Britton Colquitt) followed by two seasons with the Gators, Tommy would not be drafted in 2020. It didn’t matter, because after the draft ended several teams were interested in him – including the Chiefs.

“I had spoken to them a few times – about coaches with the Chiefs a few days before the draft – and I just talked to them if I would be interested in potentially coming as a free agent if I wasn’t drafted,” he said. said Townsend Sports Illustrated “AllGators” right after the project. “The conversation kind of continued, as we entered the seventh round the conversations started to get a lot more real.”

The leaders faced a dilemma. Chiefs special teams coach Dave Toub had ranked Townsend as the top scorer in the draft – but the team were also targeting Tulane cornerback Thakarius BoPete Keyes. Which player would go first?

“We were very confident that Keyes would have been drafted,” Chiefs general manager Brett Veach said afterward. “Actually his agent texted me with a text from another team – I won’t say the team – but he was going to leave, I think, four or five picks later.

So the Chiefs rolled the dice, coming back in the seventh round to get Keyes – and Townsend was still there after the final draft pick. The chiefs sealed the deal with a Signing bonus of $ 7,500 and additional $ 75,000 guaranteed on Townsend’s rookie deal. But from Townsend’s perspective, the Chiefs were probably an easy choice. Brother Johnny had been one of five punters to play for the Raiders for 15 seasons – while the Chiefs had only fielded one: Colquitt.

That didn’t mean, however, that there wouldn’t be competition to be part of the team. Prior to the draft, the Chiefs signed former Notre Dame punter Tyler Newsome – and Colquitt was still on the squad. But days later, the 15-year veteran of the Chiefs was released, staging a betting battle at training camp.

“It will be a real competition,” said Toub. “There is really no one in front right now as we watch him. They both have really strong, really powerful legs. They consistently hit over 5.0 hang times which is really impressive. Tommy a bit more I would say clean in his technique as far as consistency is concerned, where like Tyler is more erratic with his technique but the results are the same. They both bombard the ball. We just need to clean Tyler a bit more.

But when Toub said those words, no one knew how training camp would go during the coronavirus pandemic. Faced with a facility limit of 80 people – and the requirement that the rosters be reduced to 80 players by mid-August – the chefs decided that a betting battle was a luxury they could no longer afford. allow. On July 29, the team published Newsome – and Townsend was alone.

Speaking to reporters on Friday, Townsend denied that Newsome’s release changed anything for him.

“I always prepare the same way,” he says. “I’m always on my guard, I just try to go out and do my best and keep improving every day. Since the NFL is completely different, I’m just trying to learn as much as I can as fast as possible, continuing to progress in whatever I can do – whether it’s punting or working on my participation with James Winchester and Harrison Butker; just trying to keep moving there.

Remarks like these make it clear that the young punter is absorbing the vibe of veteran chefs from chefs like Patrick Mahomes and Tyrann Mathieu – but it’s also clear he’s still a 23-year-old who loves every minute of it.

“The training camp has been great so far,” he told reporters. “I mean, it’s super exciting. It’s my rookie season – rookie training camp. Obviously that’s not how I expected my rookie training camp to go – when it comes to COVID precautions and stuff like that our staff did a great job of keeping us socially at a distance and keeping everyone safe – but training camp went really well. I’m really happy to start the season. “

And he said moving to the next level required some tweaking.

“The most important is the ploy,” he says. “At college, we usually have a ‘clearance clearance’, but we use pro training, so it’s just a little different. I’m used to having shields and a few offensive linemen as blockers seven yards in front of me. Now it’s a little more open. And also: just the speed of the game. Everyone in the NFL is super talented. They are great players and they play hard, so I think that’s the biggest difference: [the] the talent at all levels is just amazing.

And that talent now includes his big brother Johnny, who the Baltimore Ravens signed on Tuesday. If Elder Townsend makes it to the Ravens’ final roster, the Chiefs will once again have half an NFL punting duo – who will face off in Baltimore in Week 3. The two have faced each other once before. – during Tommy’s first year with the volunteers. – but the Chiefs rookie doesn’t know how their parents will fall on their jersey selections.

“I can’t say my parents would choose either of us,” he chuckled. “I think they would be divided between [us]. They are both extremely supportive so I don’t know. Dad could be in a jersey; Mom may be in the other. Who knows?”