The Bills abruptly dumped punter Matt Araiza two years ago this month. He’s now preparing to punt again in a preseason game.
After going unsigned in 2022 and 2023, Araiza joined the Chiefs in the offseason. With former punter Tommy Townsend gone, Araiza has a clear path to winning the job.
He’ll be in full uniform again this weekend, when the Chiefs visit the Jaguars on Saturday night for the preseason opener.
“It’s going to be pretty surreal,’' Araiza told reporters on Monday, via Adam Teicher of ESPN.com. “Definitely going to take it all in. There were a lot of moments where I thought it was over, so I’m incredibly grateful to be here.”
The Bills released Araiza days after he was sued civilly for rape. He was thereafter cleared of any potential criminal liability. In December 2023, the lawsuit against him was dropped. It was enough to get the Chiefs to give Araiza a shot.
“I love football,’' Araiza said. “I love being out here, so it was on my mind a lot. It was tough to watch Sundays for sure. Really tough.”
He’s bracing for blowback, even though he remains steadfast in his innocence.
“Everyone’s entitled to their own opinion, but I think if you do your own research, I think you can come to a pretty clear conclusion,’' Araiza said.
The sixth-round pick in the 2022 draft launched an 82-yard punt in his first and only preseason, sending the ball over the head of the returner and into the end zone. It might be time to get ready for more of the same.
“I feel like I’ve been punting really well,’' Araiza said. “I’ve continued to grow. That’s probably my favorite part is, day one here versus now, I’m continuing to get better, so I’m looking forward to that. Just continued growth.”
That strong leg likely became the difference maker for Araiza. Despite being cleared from both criminal and civil allegations, plenty of teams would have been inclined look elsewhere for help at a position where supply outweighs demand — and where it’s easy to shy away from any player who stands out from the crowd, for any reason.
Harrison Butker won’t be departing from Kansas City anytime soon.
According to multiple reports, Butker and the Chiefs have agreed to a four-year extension to keep him under contract through 2028.
The initial numbers indicate Butker’s deal is worth $25.6 million with $17.75 million guaranteed, which makes Butker the NFL’s highest-paid kicker. Butker represented himself in the negotiations.
Butker was entering the last year of a contract extension he signed in 2019.
A seventh-round pick in 2017, Butker has become one of the league’s best kickers over the last seven seasons. In 2023, he hit 33-of-35 field goals and all 38 of his extra points. He was also 11-of-11 on field goals and 8-of-8 on extra points in four postseason games.
For his career, Butker has hit 89 percent of his 221 field goal attempts and 94.5 percent of his 327 extra points.
Former NFL head coach Jon Gruden is on the Chiefs’ practice field today.
Gruden is wearing Chiefs gear and working alongside head coach Andy Reid and several Chiefs assistants, according to reporters on the scene. Gruden and Reid have known each other for decades, having both worked on the Packers’ offensive staff from 1992 to 1994.
Gruden was head coach of the Raiders from 1998 to 2001, head coach of the Buccaneers from 2002 to 2008, and head coach of the Raiders again from 2018 to 2021.
The 60-year-old Gruden has been out of coaching since he was abruptly fired during the 2021 season after racist, sexist and homophobic emails he had sent years earlier were made public. Gruden is attempting to sue the NFL in connection with that incident.
But Gruden has been slowly accepted back into the NFL coaching ranks, having worked for the Saints as a consultant last year and now doing some work with the Chiefs. There’s been no word on whether Gruden will have a significant role with the team, or whether he’s just visiting today.
For the first time ever, the No. 1 player in the NFL — as voted on by the players of the NFL — is a receiver.
The top dog is Dolphins wideout Tyreek Hill.
Ordinarily, we don’t care about this list. The methodology is flawed. There’s little or no transparency. An unspecified number of players are asked to list the top 20 players in the league during the prior season. The outcome will be influenced by the specific timing of the voting.
Indeed, in specific stretches of the 2023 regular season (when Hill was on pace for more than 2,000 receiving yards and the Chiefs’ offense was so-so at best), he would have been the top choice for many players. By the time the dust settled on the season, however, it was clear that the best player in the league is Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes. (Mahomes finished fourth, behind Hill, Lamar Jackson, and Christian McCaffrey.)
Regardless, it’s Hill. And that makes things even more interesting regarding his current contract. He’s due to make less than $20 million in 2024. Quarterback Tua Tagovailoa’s recent deal has a new-money annual average of $53.1 million. (Tua came in at 36th on the top-100 list.)
Even though it should have been Mahomes, the list shows that Hill is widely regarded as a better and more impactful player than his quarterback. That will make Hill believe even more strongly that he deserves a new deal.
The challenge for Hill is to not agitate too loudly for a raise. He’s sensitive to the possibility that he’ll be perceived as a problem. That he could be traded again.
Still, he’s more valuable to the Dolphins than the team’s quarterback. But Tua has the huge contract, and Hill’s compensation is slipping and sliding in comparison to other top receivers.
Even if Hill says all the right things publicly, chances are he’s creeping toward a full boil privately.
The Chiefs added a new tight end to the roster on Friday.
The NFL’s daily transaction report shows that they have signed Geor’quarius Spivey to their 90-man roster. Wide receiver Izaiah Gathings was waived to make room for Spivey in Kansas City.
Spivey spent three seasons at Mississippi State and two years at TCU before returning to his first school in 2023. Spivey did not see any action last year, however, and had 28 catches for 298 yards and a touchdown over his entire collegiate career.
Travis Kelce fronts the tight end group for the Chiefs. They also have Noah Gray, Jared Wiley, Irv Smith, and Baylor Cupp in addition to Spivey.
Wanya Morris’s bid to win the Chiefs left tackle job hit a snag on Friday.
Morris left the practice field at training camp in a cart. Head coach Andy Reid said after the session that Morris injured his shoulder.
The Chiefs have Morris and rookie Kingsley Suamataia competing for the starting spot on the left side this summer and offensive coordinator Matt Nagy gave an update on how that’s playing out on Thursday.
“So far, it’s a healthy competition. I think the guys have had great attitudes,” Nagy said, via the team’s website. “I’m going to keep going back to the word ‘opportunity.’ Over the next several weeks, they’re going to get opportunities to prove who should be that guy at left tackle. . . . It’s incremental. It’s not one play. If a guy goes out and has a great play in a protection or in the run game, he has to do that over and over again.”
Morris, who started four games as a rookie in 2023, has also seen work at left guard during camp, so he’d be a valuable reserve if Suamataia winds up winning the tackle job.
Chiefs running back Clyde Edwards-Helaire has opened up about a mental health challenge he has been facing for years: post-traumatic stress disorder.
Edwards-Helaire says he has physical symptoms like nausea and vomiting, and that it was Julie Frymyer, an assistant athletic trainer for the Chiefs, who helped him get a proper diagnosis and start him down the path of treatment.
“Sometimes I’m admitted into the hospital, something like I can’t stop throwing up,” Edwards-Helaire said. “The only person who kind of put me in the right direction was Julie Frymyer.”
Edwards-Helaire did not go into details about the specific traumas that led to his PTSD, but he says he has lost friends to gun violence and that in 2018 he faced “a self-defense situation” himself.
“Everybody goes through things,” Edwards-Helaire said. “Good, bad, just being able to cope with it, just being human. At 25 years old I’m just trying to live the rest of my life healthy.”
The Giants made Kadarius Toney the 20th overall pick in 2021. He already is on his second team and without a roster spot guaranteed for this season.
Toney is on the roster bubble after the Chiefs upgraded the position this offseason, along with the emergence of second-year receiver Nikko Remigio in training camp. It doesn’t help Toney’s chances that he left Wednesday’s practice with an ankle injury.
It is unclear how severe his ankle injury is or how long he will be out.
“Well, listen, I mean, you want to be there every day, and so anytime you miss, especially during install days, you’re missing a load there,” coach Andy Reid said, via Ed Easton of USA Today. “So, he’s got to take care of what he’s got and get himself back out there.”
Toney spent most of the team’s 2023 training camp rehabbing from knee surgery. He played 13 games, with two starts, and made 27 catches for 169 yards and a touchdown before adding seven catches for 50 yards and a touchdown in the postseason.
Chiefs linebacker Nick Bolton had to exit Wednesday’s practice early due to an injury but head coach Andy Reid didn’t make it sound too serious in his Wednesday press conference.
Reid said Bolton tweaked his elbow. The injury occurred during an 11-on-11 team drill.
“Just got it caught in between two guys,” Reid said.
Bolton, 24, has been a critical piece of Kansas City’s defense over the last two seasons with the team winning back-to-back Super Bowls. He recorded 40 tackles with two tackles for loss and two QB hits in four postseason games last year.
Receiver Kadarius Toney exited practice after suffering an ankle injury during one-on-one drills. Tight end Izaiah Gathings (hamstring), offensive lineman Chukwuebuka Godrick (ankle), and offensive lineman McKade Mettauer (ankle) also left the session early due to injury.
When last we saw receiver Marquez Valdes-Scantling, he was making key catches in postseason wins over the Bills and the Ravens. After being cut by the Chiefs due to a salary that the team believed his skills didn’t justify, he signed with the Bills.
He could be cut again.
Joe Buscaglia of TheAthletic.com recently reported that MVS “has faded into the background” and “has yet to make a strong impression in the passing game during team drills” and his chances with quarterback Josh Allen “have dwindled.”
Buscagalia notes that Valdes-Scantling, during a first-team versus first-team drill which included a few substitutes on each side of the ball, was relegated to a second field with backups.
The Bills gave him a $1.125 million signing bonus, and his $1.125 million salary is fully guaranteed.
Valdes-Scantling played four seasons with the Packers and two with the Chiefs, winning a pair of Super Bowl rings.