What the Chiefs Want to Improve on Special Teams

Now that the Kansas City Chiefs are heading into their second week of training camp, they get to see what the players are feeling, and now they are getting a better feeling of what to expect from the coaches. The Chiefs are getting better, but are still looking to improve in a lot of different areas of their team. One of those areas comes on special teams.

One position battle that the team will be looking at closely in training camp is the punter position battle. Last season, starting punter Matt Araiza held it down for the Chiefs, and he had a good season for them. He did a great job of flipping the field and putting the Chiefs defense in good spots when they took the field.

But this offseason, the Chiefs signed punter Eddie Czaplicki as an undrafted free agent. That was a move that the Chiefs liked. Maybe it is just for competition, or they are looking to see who is a better punter. Czaplicki won the Ray Guy Award last season in College Football as the Best Punter in the Nation. Now he comes to Kansas City looking to duel Araiza for the starting role.

The thing that special teams coordinator Dave Toub wants his punter to do better this season is pinning the opposing team back deep in their territory.

"I want to see better in the pooch area," said Toub. "We worked on that. That was one of the things we worked on. I want to see them be more aggressive. Let us get the ball inside the five. They can kick it high and you know, make a fair catch at the 15, but that is not what we want. If a team is making us put at the 50, we want to get him inside the 10 or even the five, for that matter. We want to push that envelope."