This Chiefs punter’s hustle play had teammates fired up: ‘Never seen anyone do that’
Before Kansas City Chiefs special teams coordinator Dave Toub showed his guys the video clip this week, he began with a disclaimer.
They were about to see something extraordinary.
“I’ve never had a punter do this,” Toub told Chiefs players in the meeting room.
He then rolled the replay — a third-quarter snap from last week’s game against the Buffalo Bills, where punter Matt Araiza booted the ball before going into kamikaze mode.
Araiza sprinted down the field, arriving as one of the first would-be tacklers on returner Brandon Codrington. He then proceeded to barrel his body into Bills lead blocker Cam Lewis, knocking him backward and creating enough of a pile-up to slow Codrington before he was tackled.
Chiefs teammates, while re-watching in the team’s special-teams meeting, loved it. Some laughed, and a few even applauded.
All, however, respected the hustle play from the Chiefs’ 6-foot-1, 200-pound punter.
“It fires us up,” Chiefs linebacker Cole Christiansen said.
“We were all amazed,” added Chiefs safety Jaden Hicks.
“A clip like that definitely stands out,” Chiefs long-snapper James Winchester said, “when you watch a punter doing that.”
So what led to the burst of aggression — something rarely seen by punters at the pro level?
Araiza said in the locker room Thursday that after playing sports his whole life, his instincts often take over in those moments. He also played defensive back in high school before becoming a full-time kicker/punter, so he has some history of chasing down opponents for a tackle.
“I think it looks a lot worse on camera than it felt,” Araiza told The Star. “Running downfield, it felt like the returner was gonna go to my left, basically behind that lead blocker. And that’s kind of why I was like, ‘All right, well I can just push him into the lead blocker, kind of fill that hole.’”
When Codrington cut right instead, Araiza admits it “looked like I hit someone for no reason.”
But he also said he wouldn’t hesitate to put his body on the line if needed.
“I do feel like I can get downfield and help in coverage — probably more than any other punter in the league,” Araiza said.
Toub, meanwhile, had a mixed response to what he saw from Araiza. He loved Araiza’s toughness — along with his willingness to be a contributing part of the coverage unit.
Still, Toub prefers his punters to play more of a safety-type role as the last line of defense. A big reason for that is injury-related.
“We need him to make it through the season,” Toub said. “He doesn’t need to be down there being a missile like that.”
Toub still understood Araiza’s emotions on that snap. Araiza hadn’t kicked it with the hang-time he’d wanted, so his first thought was to limit a potential long Bills return however he could.
And Toub certainly was impressed by what he saw from Araiza over the next few seconds.
“A lot of guys are athletic, but it’s the aggressive mentality and the toughness that he has,” Toub said. “He’s a football player.”
Other parts of the clip stood out to teammates, too.
Christiansen was amazed by Araiza’s sprint speed, noting that “he was the first one down there. He beat the gunners down there, which is crazy.”
And seeing a punter lay out his body like that?
“No one has (seen that),” Christiansen said of his teammates. “I’ve never seen anyone do that.”
Winchester jokingly said the replay had him questioning himself; the 35-year-old was next to Araiza on the TV screen, but didn’t win the race between the two.
“I was like, ‘Man, I gotta run faster, I guess,’ because he got down there,” Winchester said. “He can fly.”
The circumstances, though, reminded Winchester of a conversation he had years ago with former Chiefs punter Dustin Colquitt. When Winchester attempted to give similar effort early in his career to make each tackle on a punt return, Colquitt said something Winchester remembers to this day:
“You can’t snap on injured reserve.”
In other words: Play hard, but also play smart. The team needs you to stay healthy, too.
“He’s a great athlete and a great punter, and he’s doing a great job for us,” Winchester said of Araiza. “He doesn’t quite have to take that last little shot.”
Araiza said Toub had shared a similar sentiment with him this week, saying he admired Araiza’s attitude but would like to see him tone it down from his third-quarter scamper.
The highlight remained a galvanizing moment in the special teams meeting room.
Hicks said the snippet indicated, “We’re all bought in. We don’t got guys taking plays off.”
Christiansen, meanwhile, said he’d never seen a punter serve as the tip of the spear for the team’s punt-return coverage, describing Araiza as a “warrior.”
“We were all hyped,” Christiansen said. “I think it’s exciting when you’ve got a punter that’s willing to throw his neck on the line for the boys.”
The game served as a homecoming for Araiza, whom the Bills drafted before releasing him in 2022.
Which begged the question: Was the urge to be physical accentuated by any desire to get back at his old team?
Araiza addressed that topic Thursday with a smile.
“Maybe a little bit,” he said. “I wasn’t necessarily thinking about it, but yeah, maybe a little bit.”
