As the Kansas City Chiefs finish preparing for a Monday Night Football matchup against the Las Vegas Raiders, the team is unsure of whether it will have kicker Harrison Butker available for the outing.
Last week, Butker returned to practice in a limited capacity for one day but wasn't nearly healthy enough to give things a go against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Now back at home for the week, Butker missed practice on Thursday and is one of two Chiefs who will miss again on Friday. Before everyone else was slated to hit the field, special teams coordinator Dave Toub provided some insight on Butker's ongoing recovery from the left ankle sprain he suffered in Week 1's win over the Arizona Cardinals.
He tried to go. He was working on one-steps — he wants to have his full approach. He doesn't want to use a half-approach, and I don't blame him. He still has a lot of pain and he's got swelling in that ankle. It was evidently a little bit worse than what you think. Everybody heals differently, so it's just going to take time to get him back. Obviously we want a full, 100% Butker. Like I said before, we've got a long season to go so we'll be happy when he's 100%. We don't want to try to force him back and all of a sudden get some regression. We definitely don't want that. He's got a lot of weeks in the bank now healing, and we've just got to get him over the top now.
The pain and swelling sentiment has been echoed by both Toub and other Chiefs coaches in recent weeks, so Butker's ankle sprain must indeed be worse than most originally thought. The Chiefs' starting kicker re-entered the Cardinals game and made a field goal but hasn't been active since, and the team has replaced him twice in the span of less than a month. With a key matchup against the Buffalo Bills looming for Week 6, perhaps that's a more realistic target date than Monday for Butker. On the other hand, as Toub mentioned, no two people heal the exact same.
Trey Smith also misses Friday's practice
The other notable Chief who wasn't able to practice on Friday was offensive guard Trey Smith. Smith, last year's sixth-round pick, has been dealing with a nagging ankle injury this season but also suffered a pectoral muscle injury during Week 4's win down in Tampa Bay. Head coach Andy Reid didn't come off as concerned at the time and Smith practiced in a limited capacity on Thursday, but his absence on Friday doesn't serve as a vote of confidence in regard to his overall health as Week 5's outing approaches in a matter of days.
Elsewhere for Kansas City, multiple other players have appeared on the injury report during the week but were full participants in practice. Center Creed Humphrey, who missed practice on Thursday due to personal reasons, is back on Friday and is presumably good to go for Monday's game against the visiting Raiders.
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