Days after losing the Bills’ punting competition, Matt Haack secured another opportunity. The Colts are signing the sixth-year veteran, Mike Garafolo of NFL.com tweets.
Haack served as the Bills’ punter last season but played out a four-year Dolphins rookie contract before his Buffalo commitment. The Colts are in need at the position; they confirmed Rigoberto Sanchez's Achilles tear Wednesday. The Colts held a punter workout Wednesday, leading to the Haack addition.
Fourth-round pick Matt Araiza beat out Haack for Buffalo’s punting job during camp. The Bills had signed Haack, 28, to a three-year, $5.48M deal in 2021. The former undrafted free agent will be in line to enjoy a friendlier punting environment, Indianapolis’ Lucas Oil Stadium, this season.
Sanchez has been the Colts’ punter since his 2017 rookie season. Like Haack, he entered the offseason signed for multiple years, but the Achilles tear Sanchez sustained while running gassers at the end of the Colts’ Tuesday practice changed Indy’s plans at this position, one that has enjoyed continuity for a lengthy stretch — from Pat McAfee (2009-16) to Sanchez. Haack being used as a 2022 one-off, which would seemingly be the plan here, throws off that fourth-down steadiness.
Haack’s one season in Buffalo featured a career-low 42.9 yards per punt. The Arizona State alumnus’s per-boot numbers were better in Miami, where he averaged between 44.5 and 45.0 yards from 2017-20. Sanchez, however, has served as the Colts’ kickoff specialist throughout his career. Haack has not done so, at least not primarily. He has recorded only four kickoffs during his career. Indianapolis’ kicker, Rodrigo Blankenship, seems likely to handle this responsibility, having made 24 kickoffs over his two-year run. Twenty of those came in 2020, a season that featured Sanchez miss time after having a cancerous tumor surgically removed.
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