The Kansas City Chiefs don’t just have a kicking problem on their hands. They have a deeper trust issue.
The fact that Matt Ammendola takes up a roster spot at all is a primary concern at this point for a Chiefs team that was a single miscue away from being 3-0 instead of 2-1 through Week 3. Fresh off of an agonizing loss to the Colts on the road at Lucas Oil Stadium that featured myriad mistakes, the Chiefs need to first answer any and all questions about their kicking game, because Ammendola’s (in)ability made all of the difference.
But the question here isn’t just about Ammendola’s mistakes, of which there were multiple. Yes, he missed an extra point. Yes, he also missed a short field goal attempt. Yes, he failed to force touchbacks on kickoffs which led to some better field position for the Colts at times. But with all of that, he also failed to earn the trust of the Chiefs’ coaching staff. And if the disconnect is that egregious, then you have to ask: what is he doing on the Chiefs roster in the first place?
It’s hard to explain why the Kansas City Chiefs simultaneously exhibit trust and distrust of Matt Ammendola to be their kicker.
Herein lies the real problem. If Andy Reid as a head coach does not trust his kicker to do the job, then why did the front office sign him. If you’re not going to use a guy, then why waste a roster spot on him. And for a specialist role like a kicker, if you can’t trust him, it turns out that your favorite team will resort to being cute on straightforward downs—like having punter Tommy Townsend attempt to throw to Noah Gray for a first down from the 24-yard line.
Let’s review that last line for just a second. The Chiefs elected to have their punter throw on a 4th-and-11 to their backup tight end when they were within four yards of the red zone instead of trotting out a kicker for a moderate field goal attempt. This is what happens when you lack trust in something: you are forced to come up with odd ways to work around it. And in this game, it was the very difference between winning and losing.
Some of this is on Ammendola, because anyone kicking should be able to make an extra point or a 40-yard field goal. But to his credit, the Chiefs knew he was not reliable from that distance. Ammendola was a lock from under 40 yards last season in limited duties for the Jets—converting 11 of 11 attempts—but he was only 2 for 8 from anything beyond 40. Yes, two for eight. That’s not good.
If he’s not good, why did Brett Veach sign him? There are other kickers out there with the track record of leg strength and/or accuracy to make things work better than Ammendola has proven to do. Even more, why is a head coach refusing to lean on the guy brought in for that very moment? Is there a disconnect between the front office and coaching staff? Is there one between Andy Reid and Dave Toub? Somewhere there’s a bit of tension, and it’s the only thing that explains why Ammendola would be both on the roster and yet unused.
By the time you read this, Ammendola might be more accurately referred to as a “former” member of the Chiefs roster. Most fans would likely breathe easy if that were the case. But his very presence on the roster reveals some real questions. Why sign a kicker you will not use? If you were going to ignore him, why not just roll with Justin Reid in the first place? And even then, if you knew you weren’t going to trust your kicker, why not tell Patrick Mahomes that and give him four full downs to work with on each drive?
The whole “refuse to use Ammendola” subject is an odd one, and in a game with numerous mishaps against a team that refused to go away, it ended up costing them a victory. Perhaps we’ll find out eventually why things played out the way they did, but for now there are only questions as to why Ammendola was on this roster and/or why he wasn’t used for exactly the reasons he was brought on board.