Tom Telesco and his staff brought in Ty Long this offseason because they needed a new punter. With the preponderance of kicking issues the team has experienced over the last few seasons, the front office was attracted to Long’s ability to both punt (48.3 yards per punt average on 236 punts) and kick (88.2% on 93 attempts with a long of 52).
When starting kicker Michael Badgley tweaked his groin in practice 3 days before gameday, the Chargers made the decision to put Ty Long’s versatility to the test, entrusting kickoff, punting, and place kicking duties all to the former CFL player in his first NFL game.