As the Kansas City Chiefs try to remain undefeated this week with a showdown against the Buffalo Bills, they will be without one of their top players.
As first reported by NFL insider Tom Pelissero this week, the Kansas City Chiefs will be without star kicker Harrison Butker for the next few weeks as a result of an injury.
“Sources: #Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker is expected to miss 3-4 weeks and is likely headed to injured reserve with a left knee injury. Kansas City will have a new kicker Sunday at Buffalo,” Pelissero wrote in a post on X, the social media website that was formerly known as Twitter.
Pelissero went on to report that the Chiefs had signed veteran kicker Spencer Shrader to fill in for Butker while he’s out with an injury.
“Harrison Butker will have the knee scoped to clean up his meniscus and should be back within a month. But for now, any game-winning kicks will come from the leg of Spencer Shrader,” Pelissero said in a follow-up post.
Needless to say, this is pretty horrible news for the Chiefs as Butker has established himself as arguably the best and most consistent kicker in the entire league.
The news understandably led to a lot of reactions on social media.
“Of all the things that may end their winning streak, this one seems most likely. The chiefs offense has needed so many FGs this season.. KC is just 17th in redzone TD % this season.. converting just over 54% of the time,” NFL analyst Trey Wingo wrote on X.
“Bills winning 60-0,” a fan wrote.
“I hope harrison gets healthy quickly but i am also excited to test my theory that the chiefs offense overall will be more efficient if they don’t think their kicker can hit from anywhere inside 65,” another fan added.
“Last kick of the game for Harrison Butker was the “miss kick” out of bounds that gave Denver a short field… Not sure if that’s related to what now will put him on IR. Hope Butker is back quickly given he has always been one of the Chiefs best advantages,” another fan said.
“Massive news heading into Sunday. [Forget] the kicks and just go for 4th downs. I don’t trust any other kicker off the street,” another person wrote.
“Further supporting my notion that the Chiefs lose this week,” another fan said.
We’ll have to see how the Chiefs fair without Butker.
