The Kansas City Chiefs were fortunate to make it through a shortened week against one of the toughest opponents in Week 2—the L.A. Chargers—without kicker Harrison Butker. In games that are typically down to the wire, the loss of Butker to injury could have been a major factor. Fortunately, his replacement Matt Ammendola did just fine and the Chiefs were able to hold off Justin Herbert’s last-minute heroics to move to 2-0.
Now as the Chiefs are looking past the Chargers at the start of another week of preparation, they’re still left wondering if Butker will be available.
Chiefs head coach Andy Reid spoke to the media on Monday after a nice weekend off following Thursday Night Football and answered questions about Butker’s readiness. Per Herbie Teope of the Star, Reid stated that they would have to “see how it goes this week.”
The Kansas City Chiefs still aren’t sure whether or not Harrison Butker will be available against the Colts as Week 3 preparations begin.
Butker is one of the league’s better kickers with a leg that’s as accurate as it is powerful, and if not for the high-powered nature of the team’s offense, he’d likely have a higher profile with more opportunities to score. That said, the Chiefs want to do the right thing here and not further irritate an ankle that they’ll undoubtedly depend upon late into the postseason.
The good news is that Ammendola will be that much more familiar with his teammates with another week of practice in the books. Ammendola also showed he was capable of the basics of the job without any problem as he nailed two shorter field goal attempts on Thursday against the Chargers in addition to nailing three extra point attempts.
Butker initially injured his ankle on his plant foot early in the first quarter of Week 1 when kicking off following the team’s first touchdown of the regular season.