HOUSTON -- When Tommy Townsend signed with the Texans in March 2024, his previous two seasons could not have been better for a punter.
He'd won back-to-back Super Bowls with the Kansas City Chiefs and had been named a first-team All-Pro in 2022.
But the Texans still challenged him. They wanted him to be better at the midfield punting game, a challenge Townsend did not shy away from.
The 2025 Texans are reaping the benefits, as Townsend was named AFC Special Teams Player of the Week following his Week 17 performance in the Texans' 20-16 victory over the Los Angeles Chargers.
Townsend pinned the Chargers inside the 20-yard line on four of his five punts in the game. Two of his punts were downed inside the 10-yard line, including a punt that was downed at the 2-yard line.
"Not a feared person of the work," Texans special teams coordinator Frank Ross said of Townsend this week. "Tommy loves to work. Sometimes you have to be like, ‘Hey, we're going to put the reins on you and put a governor on him for doing too much, in a way.’
"Giving the Houston Texans' defense long fields, I believe, is an advantage for our team. He's able to do that, got great gunners out down there fielding the ball and really proud that he's leaned into improving that aspect of his game. Now it's become, arguably, his bread and butter. We still need a punter that can flip the field when it's time. He's able to do that. So, it's all going to work in congruence together, direction, hang, distance, width of the kick and then hang plus width plus distance control in the midfield."
Townsend this season has pinned 28 punts inside opponents’ 20-yard line, tied for fourth in the NFL and third in the AFC. He’s punted 69 times (third-most in the league) and recorded a 41.9 net punting average.
Since signing with the Texans in 2024, Townsend has placed a league-high 67 punts inside the 20, while serving as the team’s primary holder on field goals and extra points.