Former Chiefs kicker Cairo Santos finds a new home with the Buccaneers

Former Kansas City Chiefs kicker Cairo Santos has joined his 33rd NFL team (unofficial count) since being cut last year. His latest stop is in Tampa Bay.

Cairo Santos has had a far more difficult time than expected in free agency.

When the Kansas City Chiefs decided to officially cut ties with Santos, they’d found a rookie sensation in the form of Harrison Butker. Butker was Mahomes, Jr., so to speak, setting all kinds of franchise records and turning heads as a first-year starter. It wasn’t that Cairo Santos was a bad kicker, but while injured, the Chiefs had simply discovered someone who was even better at the craft (and cheaper).

The reason the Chiefs were even looking at someone else besides Santos was due to a groin injury that plagued him in the preseason for multiple weeks that reappeared in the regular season for another few weeks. Most franchises can ill afford to keep a couple kickers on such limited 53-man rosters, so Santos was first sent to injured reserve and finally waived with a settlement. Butker was available and performing admirably. That was enough for the Chiefs.

Santos was a very solid kicker for the Chiefs for the three-plus years he served as their kicker. He made 85 percent of all field goal attempts overall, but he was getting even better year over year for the Chiefs under Dave Toub’s leadership. Santos converted 89.4 percent of all field goal attempts from 2016-17, an impressive rate for a kicker who could also nail the long kicks at a decent rate (a career long of 53 yards).

Since being released by the Chiefs just last year, Santos has been signed and released by the Chicago Bears, the New York Jets and the L.A. Rams. Now he’s signed with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the hopes of finding a new semi-permanent home with a team that’s going to likely clear house from the top down this coming offseason. Santos replaces Chandler Catanzaro in Tampa Bay who missed two field goals on Sunday against the Washington Redskins.

Will Santos settle in with the Bucs? It’s hard to say, but in a league where good kickers are hard to find, it seems a bit odd that Santos can’t latch on with a new team for any real length of time.