The Buffalo Bills have announced that they have released punter Matt Araiza after troubling allegations were first reported by the Los Angeles Times. The former San Diego State University punter was drafted by the Buffalo Bills in the sixth round of the 2022 NFL Draft.
Araiza was recently named the starting punter after he won a training camp battle with veteran Matt Haack, who was the team’s starting punter last year.
However, once the report surfaced, the Bills held Araiza out of the final preseason game against the Carolina Panthers. The Bills instead had Matt Barkley, one of the team’s backup quarterbacks, punt in the final preseason game. It was expected Case Keenum would be the holder on field goal attempts, based on warmup observations by Katherine Fitzgerald, but the Bills were not in a position to attempt a field goal.
Buffalo Bills will look for a new punter before the season opener
The Buffalo Bills will now likely hold tryouts to find their next punter as Matt Haack is not an option after he was signed by the Indianapolis Colts after he was released. However, they won’t have much time to find his replacement as the team is set to open the 2022 regular season against the Los Angeles Rams on Thursday, September 8th.
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