There’s a lot to feel good about around One Arrowhead Drive, with December’s slate of games is just around the corner. The Kansas City Chiefs are 7-4, atop the division. Under two games back from the conference, the offense has its swagger back, the defense has resurged, and special teams have plenty to feel good about, too, especially if your second-year punter Tommy Townsend.
While on his way to team facilities Thursday morning, Townsend received a text from a family member that announced he was selected as the NFL’s AFC Special Teams Player of the Month award for November.
“My oldest brother, Clay, sent like one of the pictures of it, a screenshot of it, to our family group text,” Townsend said Friday. “As soon as I saw it, I was so happy; I was ecstatic. I mean, that’s obviously one of the top awards that you can get during the season. It was such an incredible feeling just to see all my hard work really paying off.”
In four games, Townsend reeled off 14 punts for an average of 51.2 yards and netted 50.7 yards per attempt. His longest punt went for a career-high 68 yards, and he even had an opportunity to display his arm strength by rifling a pass wide receiver/gunner Marcus Kemp for the completion and a first down in Week 10 against the Las Vegas Raiders.
Towsend also earned AFC Special Teams Player of the Week honors for the night he had against the Green Bay Packers and is the first player in Chiefs history to win a monthly award.
“That’s another incredible honor,” he said. “Obviously, there are so many greats here, and being the first to do anything is really cool.”
He also got the coaching staff’s attention as well.
“Really great, really, really, great news this morning hearing that,” Special Teams Coach Dave Toub said Thursday. “Well deserved, I mean, when you go back and look at the month that he had, it’s by far the best performance by a punter that I’ve ever had as a coach. It was really, really good numbers, and it was good to see him do it week after week. He had a really good week, and then he followed it up with three more weeks, so very proud of him and the unit.”
Townsend originally came to Kansas City as an undrafted rookie out of Flordia with massive shoes to fill as the replacement to long-time Chiefs punter Dustin Colquitt. So far, he’s exceeding those expectations.
“Nobody works harder,” Chiefs Head Coach Andy Reid said Friday. “He and [kicker Harrison] Butker are relentless working with one another. It’s paid off for him this past month, so now his challenge is he keeps going. He’s got to keep pounding here, and consistency is a huge thing for a punter in this league.”
But there’s still plenty of work left as the Chiefs look to end 2021 on a solid note with playoffs still on the horizon.
“I’m going to try and keep doing what I’m doing and let everything else take care of itself,” Townsend said.
In 11 games this season, Townsend has booted 26 punts for 1,263 yards, averaging 48.6 yards per attempt.
