One of the big questions for the Buffalo Bills at this point of the year was who would be their punter for the upcoming season. The team released rookie Matt Araiza over the weekend and according to NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport now has their answer in the form of veteran Sam Martin.
Sam Martin was recently released by the Denver Broncos earlier this week. Martin began his NFL career with the Detroit Lions after they selected him in the fifth round of the 2013 NFL Draft.
He would spend seven years with the Lions and over that stretch would average 46 yards per punt on 473 punts. For the past two seasons, he has been a member of the Denver Broncos and had a similar average of 46.4 yards per punt.
One thing that is notable when looking at Sam Martin’s stats is that he has been asked to punt a lot recently with an average of over 70 punts per season since 2018. Meanwhile, the Buffalo Bills were one of the teams to punt the fewest in the league as Matt Haack only had 52 punts.
While Martin was asked to punt a lot, he did a good job limiting returns this past season as he had over 40% of his punts downed inside the 20 but only three of his punts end up in touchbacks. The net yard average for his punts of 42.3 yards was the third best in the league.
Buffalo Bills will need to make a corresponding roster move to add Sam Martin
The addition of Sam Martin now means the Buffalo Bills will have to make a corresponding roster move to ensure the roster stays at 53 players. The team will have some options to create that spot by either adding a player to injured reserve or releasing a player.
This was certainly expected and the front office likely already had a plan in place knowing they would have to add a punter in the coming days.
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