Harrison Butker landed on injured reserve with a left knee injury, forcing the undefeated Kansas City Chiefs to sign a replacement, Spencer Shrader, off the Jets’ practice squad on Thursday.
Butker won’t be on the field when the Chiefs (9-0) visit the Buffalo Bills (8-2) on Sunday trying to win an 16th consecutive game dating to last season.
Eighth among NFL kickers in points with 75 this season, Butker connected on 18 of 20 field-goal attempts and 21 of 22 extra points. Both of the missed field goals were on tries beyond 50 yards.
Butker’s career 89.21 field-goal percentage ranks third in NFL history.
The Chiefs have won seven of nine games by a one-possession margin in 2024. Their last visit to Buffalo was a 27-24 nail-biter win in last seasons’s AFC Divisional Playoffs, and the regular-season meeting with the Bills was a 20-17 loss. The Chiefs also dropped a 24-20 decision to the Bills in the 2022 regular season.
A 25-year-old rookie from Notre Dame, Shrader connected on both of his field-goal attempts for the Jets last week at Arizona. He joined the Jets after being released by the Indianapolis Colts, who used Shrader in Week 1 for three successful PATs as the injury replacement for placekicker Matt Gay.
He entered the NFL as an undrafted free agent and played college football only after first pursuing a pro soccer career. He enrolled at USF in 2019 and was the primary kicker for four seasons. As a graduate transfer in 2023, Shrader had four 50-yard field goals for the Fighting Irish.
Butker, 29, signed a self-negotiated four-year, $25.6 million extension in August that made him the highest-paid kicker in the NFL.
Butker set the Super Bowl record for longest field goal during the Chiefs’ 25-22 overtime win over the San Francisco 49ers in Super Bowl LVIII earlier this year. Butker’s 57-yard field goal with 5:01 left in the third quarter supplanted the previous record that had been set just one quarter earlier by 49ers rookie Jake Moody, who kicked a 55-yarder to give San Francisco an early 3-0 lead.
Originally drafted out of Georgia Tech by the Carolina Panthers in the seventh round of the 2017 NFL Draft, Butker has played all seven of his NFL seasons with the Chiefs.
Shrader participated in the Colts’ 2024 offseason program and training camp after originally signing with the team as an undrafted free agent.
