The Kansas City Chiefs had zero competition in training camp for Cairo Santos, but with their kicker injured, they’ve brought in John Lunsford.
Cairo Santos has no reason to worry.
The Kansas City Chiefs have left their special teams core of specialists alone this offseason. Everyone’s job is safe, from the punter to the kicker to the long snapper. That means Santos doesn’t need to pay much attention to the new kicker arriving in Chiefs camp: John Lunsford. The team simply needs someone to lock down that role while the incumbent deals with a lingering groin injury that will reportedly keep him out for the next week or two, per Ian Rapoport.
With #Chiefs kicker Cairo Santos nursing a groin injury for the next week or so, KC is working out K John Lunsford today, sources say.
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) August 8, 2017
At one point this preseason, Santos had made 30 straight field goals, so anyone wondering why the Chiefs didn’t bring in any competition for Santos should relax. The Chiefs seem to love their Brazilian kicker, and for good reason: the 25-year-old made a career-best 88.6% of his field goal attempts in 2016 and made 8 of 9 from 40 yards or beyond (including 2 of 2 from 50 yards out or more).
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Lunsford has had a couple tryouts with the Seattle Seahawks and Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and he’s likely on a short list for several teams in case something goes wrong. The rookie out of Liberty University has serious strength in his leg, but his accuracy has always been an issue. A kicker can’t succeed without the ability to do both in the NFL, but Lunsford could be a nice work-in-progress if he can put together the other component to his game.
It should also be noted that he’s just working out for the Chiefs, so nothing is official yet, but general manager Brett Veach is likely to bring in someone given Santos’s injury.