The Buffalo Bills find themselves in a strange scenario as backup quarterback Matt Barkley is handling punting duties in their preseason finale on Friday night. This stems from their starting punter Matt Araiza suddenly finding himself at the center of controversy after a rape lawsuit was filed against him. The Bills held Araiza out in this exhibition matchup, which left the team without a punter on the roster after releasing Matt Haack earlier in the week before the Araiza news went public.
Pregame workouts showed Barkley practicing his punting skills instead of his usual quarterback warmup, and the outlook was looking positive.
Matt Barkley’s punting talent disappears after kickoff
Despite showing some pregame spunk before the game kicked off, Barkley’s first punt didn’t go so well. Barkley’s punt went just 33 yards, which is a much shorter distance than his pre-game effort showed. But he also wasn’t facing a special teams unit rushing after him to block the kick either. Big difference.
Then again, for a third-string quarterback, Barkley managing a 33-yard punt is actually quite impressive. Still, don’t expect to see Barkley putting his foot on the ball once the regular season gets underway.
The Bills may have gotten into this situation hoping for a repeat of last week when their offense was rolling, thus only having to punt once during the entire game, but we could see a much different outcome than the 42-15 beatdown over the Denver Broncos last week.
Barkley’s entering his ninth season as a quarterback in the NFL, and it’s safe to say he won’t be quitting his day job to pick up a side gig as a punter any time soon. But we appreciate the effort, and Bills Mafia surely does too.