Arrowhead Pride
Toub discusses one of Kansas City’s more intriguing special teams battles for the upcoming season.
After Wednesday’s organized team activities (OTAs) session, Kansas City Chiefs special teams coordinator Dave Toub made it clear that the punter competition between Matt Araiza and rookie Eddie Czaplicki is wide open — and very real.
Araiza, the team’s starting punter in 2024, made a name for himself coming out of college with his powerful leg. In his first season with the Chiefs, he averaged 48.8 yards per punt (ranking 12th in the NFL), with a net average of 41.8 yards and a season-long 72-yarder.
While Araiza’s power is undeniable, his ball placement left room for improvement, as he landed just 25 of his 62 punts inside the 20-yard line, tied for 16th in the league.
“He’s got a bomb of a leg,” Toub told reporters about Araiza on Wednesday. “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 getting balls inside the 20. That’s what he’s really emphasizing during this offseason.”
As Toub indicated, raw power alone won’t secure the job.
Enter Eddie Czaplicki, an undrafted free agent out of USC who has already turned heads in Kansas City. Czaplicki won the Ray Guy Award as college football’s top punter in 2024, averaging 47.8 yards per punt with 25 of his 43 attempts downed inside the 20. His ability to flip field position with precision stood out; he had just one touchback all season, helping USC lead the nation in net punting average.
“I know it’s early, but he’s very talented,” Toub said of Czaplicki. “He got hurt late in the year in college — you know he’s a Ray Guy winner last year — he got hurt late in the year, and he kind of slipped and didn’t get drafted. We pounced, and those guys did a great job of getting him in our building. We’ve had a history of developing guys and those guys moving on, so that helped us to be able to get a free agent that is the caliber that he is.”
The Chiefs’ history of developing punters who go on to thrive elsewhere includes Jack Fox, who now stars for the Detroit Lions — and Ryan Rehkow, who signed a two-year extension with the Cincinnati Bengals this offseason. While Toub is hoping this year’s competition leads to stability at the position, between Araiza’s leg strength and Czaplicki’s consistency, the Chiefs appear to have two NFL-caliber punters in the mix.
“Again, this would be the third time we had this,” Toub noted about the punter competition. “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. The competition is real.”
