The Kansas City Chiefs should be just fine at kicker heading into the season as Cairo Santos reportedly feels fine after the Titans game.
For the last few weeks, the Kansas City Chiefs had a bit of a worry in their special teams unit. Dave Toub and company run one of the NFL’s finest special teams operations, and some of that can be attributed to the accuracy and leg of kicker Cairo Santos. However, with a recent groin injury plaguing Santos, the Chiefs faced some uncertainty heading into the regular season.
The team signed former Penn State kicker Sam Ficken to be a fill-in for Santos throughout most of the preseason and he’s performed admirably. Perhaps he would be even be just fine if Santos were out for some time, but the Chiefs are built to win now, so going with an unproven kicker would be a question mark the team would rather avoid at this point. Just ask the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
The good news is that Santos should be just fine. Head coach Andy Reid said after the game that he thought Santos looked good and the Chiefs are in a “good spot” at kicker. Apparently any worry that Santos might not be ready for Week 1 against the New England Patriots in primetime has dissipated.
"I thought he did a good job. He missed the first extra point, but I thought he did well. He had big kicking day on Sunday and felt great coming out of that. He felt good tonight so we’re in a good spot."
He returned in time to kick in Thursday’s win over the Tennessee Titans at Arrowhead Stadium and nailed his only field goal attempt of the night—a 48-yard attempt in the second half. Santos made over 88 percent of his kicks last season, so the Chiefs are going to be counting on that sort of accuracy to help finish drives when the offense stalls.