For obvious reasons, the Buffalo Bills were scrambling to fill their punter position in Friday night’s preseason finale against the Carolina Panthers. Rookie sixth-round pick Matt Araiza is one of three current or former San Diego State football players named in a recent lawsuit accused of rape, false imprisonment and gender-violence crimes. The Bills have kept Araiza on the roster for whatever reason, but announced that he would not be punting against the Panthers.
That led to a round-robin in which safety Micah Hyde, and backup quarterbacks Case Keenum and Matt Barkley, competed to see who would replace Araiza, at least for this game. The Bills cut punter Matt Haack on Monday, even after they knew of the lawsuit.
Barkley won out, and he didn’t look awful in his NFL punting debut.
Bills backup quarterback Matt Barkley with the 33-yard punt. pic.twitter.com/FW7lTeC2ma
— Doug Farrar ✍ (@NFL_DougFarrar) August 26, 2022
Perhaps this proves that as much as special teams are valuable, no punter is worth keeping on a roster if he carries a poisonous past.
