Did Buffalo Bills make the right decision releasing Lachlan Edwards?
Did the Buffalo Bills make the right move at the punter position on Thursday?
On Thursday, the Buffalo Bills released their veteran kicker Stephen Hauschka on Thursday, signaling that rookie Tyler Bass would be the starter this coming year. The Bills also essentially announced the winner of the battle for the starting punter job, staying with the status quo by keeping Corey Bojorquez and releasing Lachlan Edwards.
The question is did they make the right call?
Bojorquez has been the Bills starting punter for the past two seasons after replacing Colton Schmidt at the start of the 2018 season. However, the performance has been up and down and he has struggled to firmly grasp the starting job.
In 24 games, Bojorquez has 124 punts for a 43.1 average and has 45.1% of his punts downed inside the 20 yard line. However, he also has a touchback percentage of 8.87% which can speak to his lack of accuracy, especially on coffin kicks.
Meanwhile, the Bills brought in Lachlan Edwards after releasing Kaare Vedvik earlier this month. The former New York Jets punter is experienced being their starting punter for the past four years. He has had plenty of work and this past season led the league in punts and yards with 87 punts and 3,991 yards. In terms of average, Edwards is slightly better than Bojorquez in yards per punt at 45.5 and this past season was a little lower in punts downed inside the 20 with a 32.18%.
In addition his touchback percentage was significantly lower at only 3.45%, which can speak to Edwards better in terms of accuracy. However, considering his punts downed inside the 20 was much lower, this likely is due to the Jets offense struggling and not advancing far enough for Edwards to have a chance to pin the opposing team deep.
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It is hard to get an idea of how the two players performed during training camp with limited media access and no preseason games this year. However, based on Lachlan Edwards’ resume and Corey Bojorquez’s inconsistencies, this is certainly a surprising move for the Buffalo Bills.