The Kansas City Chiefs are established as a legitimate contender, but that doesn’t mean that jobs aren’t up for grabs as they continue OTA workouts. After a year in which the Chiefs failed to complete an unprecedented three-peat, Kansas City is combing through its weaknesses so they can get back to the top of the NFL in 2025.
Needless to say, if your name isn’t Patrick Mahomes or Travis Kelce, your job isn’t safe. That became true in the case of one Kansas City specialist when he was called out by his coach earlier this week and opened the door to an unanticipated competition as the season draws near.
Chiefs special teams coordinator Dave Toub discussed his team’s punters as they enter the upcoming season. While the Chiefs have brought in a UDFA punter for the second straight season, Toub hinted that newcomer Eddie Czaplicki has the ability to dethrone Matt Araiza as OTAs conclude.
“Yeah, he’s an NFL punter,” Toub said of Czaplicki via Charles Goldman of A to Z Sports. “Again, this would be the third time we’ve had this. We had it with Jack Fox. We had it with [Ryan] Rehkow, and we have it again because both of these guys are NFL-caliber guys, and the competition is really. So Eddie’s doing a great job at this point.”
Toub’s comments may be surprising to Araiza, who successfully defeated Rehkow to win the Chiefs’ punter job during last year’s training camp. Araiza finished 10th in the league in yards per punt and finished 16th in punts downed inside the 20-yard line. But he failed to put touch on his kicks, tying for the most touchbacks in the NFL.
The league’s decision to move the touchback on kickoffs to the 35-yard line also impacts Araiza’s need to improve his accuracy, and wasn’t lost on Toub when speaking to the media.
“We’re looking for him – he’s got a bomb of a leg,” Toub said of Araiza. “He can hit the ball long. We need more hang time on his punts, more vertical power, and then we need more accuracy in the pooch area, which is, you know, getting balls inside the 20-yard line. So, that’s what he’s really emphasizing during this offseason.”
Czaplicki showed the traits the Chiefs would like during his collegiate career at USC. He averaged 47.8 yards on his punts last season and also had 25 of his 43 punts land inside the 20-yard line. Most notably, he had just one touchback on those punts, amounting to a 2.3% touchback rate that would be an improvement on Araiza’s 14.5% rate from last season.
Of course, Czaplicki needs to show that during OTAs and camp, which is something Rekhow didn’t do before latching on with the Cincinnati Bengals. If Araiza can’t improve, the rookie could run away with the job and produce a change that wasn’t expected at the beginning of the offseason.
