Out since suffering an ankle injury early in Week 1, Harrison Butker is expected to stop the revolving door of Chiefs kickers in Week 6.
Kansas City special teams coordinator Dave Toub said (via ESPN.com’s Adam Teicher, on Twitter) Butker is on track to return against the Bills, barring a setback this week in practice. The Chiefs have played it cautiously with their longtime kicker, but it looks like they will not have to continue the fill-in route they have been on for the past month.
The Chiefs initially used safety Justin Reid as an emergency kicker but have since moved on to traditional specialists. Matt Ammendola and Matthew Wright have kicked for Kansas City over the past four games. After Ammendola’s rough day in Indianapolis helped lead the Chiefs to their only loss this season, the team removed him from its practice squad and held another competition. Wright won that and now has the longest field goal (59 yards) in Arrowhead Stadium history.
Wright, the Jaguars’ primary kicker last season, remains on the Chiefs’ practice squad. Butker has resided on the Chiefs’ active roster since his injury, with the team taking it week-to-week with its sixth-year kicker. Ammendola and Wright have risen to the active roster via the game-day elevation method the 2020 CBA enabled. Considering Butker’s recent injury trouble, it would not surprise if the Chiefs retained Wright on their P-squad.
Butker’s $4.1MM-per-year deal runs through the 2024 season. He has made at least 89% of his field goal tries in each of his five NFL seasons. The former Panthers seventh-round pick was 7 of 9 from beyond 50 yards last season.