Tennessee Titans give Cairo Santos the boot

The Tennessee Titans decided to part ways with former Kansas City Chiefs kicker Cairo Santos after he missed all four field goals in the team’s Week 5 loss.

It’s hard for a kicker to remain employed after missing four field goals in a single game. Unless a kicker comes with a historic legacy, a la Adam Vinatieri of the Indianapolis Colts, it’s easy for a team to pin the blame on a kicker by giving him the boot, so to speak, after a short series of struggles. The latest example comes via the Tennessee Titans who decided to release Cairo Santos on Monday.

Santos, a former kicker for the Kansas City Chiefs, missed all four of his field goal attempts on Sunday for the Titans in what turned into a 14-7 loss at home to the Buffalo Bills. Given the close nature of the game, Santos’ inability to convert a single one of those attempts was largely the difference between victory and defeat.

The poor showing on Sunday was unfortunate for Santos, who had provided consistent accuracy before that point. Santos had converted 4 of 5 field goal attempts so far on the season and had also made all 11 extra point attempts.

Last year Santos split time between the Los Angeles Rams and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Given his tenure with the Chicago Bears in 2017 and this stint with the Titans, Santos has been unable to find a long-term home since his release from the Chiefs.

The Chiefs employed Santos as their full-time kicker from 2014-2016 and even into the ’17 season before releasing him due to a groin injury he suffered in the preseason. By the time he returned, Harrison Butker had taken over the position as a rookie with an impressive accuracy that would give him a hold on the job—whether Santos was healthy or not.

Santos is only 27 years old and should be able to find continued work with some team in the near future.