For the second consecutive day of practice, the Kansas City Chiefs will be without starting K Harrison Butker due to an ankle injury.
Speaking to reporters ahead of practice on Thursday, Chiefs special teams coordinator Dave Toub provided an update on Butker’s ankle injury and recovery.
“(Harrison) Butker is working his butt off,” Toub explained. “He is in there and he’s attacking (rehab) just like he attacks practice and everything else. That’s his personality. He’s doing everything he can to get back. Rick (Burkholder) and his staff are doing a good job of getting the swelling out. The swelling was really bad in his ankle, it went all the way up and the blood went all the way down to his toes. It was pretty ugly. So, they’re getting the swelling out of his foot. He just needs time to get that thing healed up.”
While Butker is clearly getting after it in the rehab process, even working on some kicks with Rick Burkholder and the training staff, the team is taking the cautious approach here. They want him as close to 100% as possible before he returns and that means getting all of the swelling out of his plant foot.
“It’s killing Butker,” Toub said. “He doesn’t like to miss anything. He certainly doesn’t want to see somebody else doing his job. He’s going to get back as soon as he can.”
While there is a slim possibility that Butker could get out there this week, it sounds as if it’s trending toward Matt Ammendola being the Chiefs’ kicker for another week. He made all of his kicks in Week 2 against the Chargers out at Arrowhead Stadium and he continues to build chemistry with his new teammates in practice.
“Matt (Ammendola) is here, he’s going through practice,” Toub said. “If (Harrison) Butker can’t go.
Should he play in Week 3, Ammendola will get the luxury of playing inside at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis. In a short time, he’s developed quite a bit of trust with Toub, who says Ammendola has made kicks of 53, 56 and 60 yards in either practice or his tryout with the team.
“He’s got the range, he can do it,” Toub said of Ammendola. “We’ve got full confidence in him. He’s got a lot more reps with (Tommy Townsend and James Winchester), so he’s feeling more comfortable.”
