If the Kansas City Chiefs expect to get back to the Super Bowl, where they appeared in five of six seasons from 2019 through 2024, Harrison Butker’s 63.2% field-goal percentage just isn’t going to cut it.
A new last-minute trade pitch aimed at the Chiefs and Indianapolis Colts would restore reliability to the kicker position, even more than newly acquired Justin Tucker would, after Tucker managed just 73.3% in 2024. He has not kicked at all since then, sidelined by a series of alarming off-field scandals.
The Chiefs have less than 24 hours to pull off a trade for Indianapolis Colts kicker Spencer Shrader, a move FanSided analyst Justin Carter says would solve one of their most glaring weaknesses.
Kansas City improved to 6-2 by routing the Jets 35-12 on Sunday, but Butker kept missing, and with the deadline looming, can the Chiefs afford to wait?
The Chiefs opened 5-0 before back-to-back losses to Seattle and Denver, and the Broncos took first place in the AFC West. Beyond kicker, Kansas City is looking for a receiver, and FanSided cited a hamstring injury to Xavier Worthy.
Harrison Butker’s Struggles Push Kansas City Chiefs Toward Spencer Shrader
Butker opened Sunday 12-for-18 on field goals, then missed a 56-yarder at halftime that struck the upright. A Jets offside penalty gave him a redo from 51 yards, and he missed again, wide right. That left him 12-for-19 this season.
A week earlier in Denver, Butker missed a 54-yarder with 2:36 left that would have put Kansas City up six, and the Broncos won 28-24.
“It’s within Harrison’s range,” coach Andy Reid said, as quoted by CBS Sports.
Last season, Butker went 33-for-38 on field goals and 5-for-8 from 50 yards or longer. Since the start of 2025 he has missed more kicks than any NFL kicker, 10 field goals and five extra points through the Seattle loss.
Kansas City signed five-time All-Pro Justin Tucker to the practice squad Oct. 28. Tucker made 73.3 percent of his field goals in 2024, the worst mark of his career, and hasn’t played since January 2025. The Baltimore Banner reported that 16 massage therapists accused him of sexual misconduct, but Tucker has called the allegations “unequivocally false,” according to the Associated Press. The NFL suspended him 10 games for violating its personal conduct policy. But he missed all 17 games in 2025 and at least the first nine weeks of 2026.
Colts Kicker Shrader’s Career and Trade Value
Shrader, 27, is an Indiana native who played one year of football at Newsome High School in Lithia, Florida, then spent 2018 in semipro soccer in Brazil and Canada. He walked on at South Florida, became a 2021 Lou Groza Award semifinalist, and transferred to Notre Dame for 2023.
Undrafted in 2024, he signed with the Colts, then landed in Kansas City that November when the Chiefs signed Shrader off the Jets’ practice squad after Butker’s knee injury. He made all three of his field goals in two games, including a game-winner against the Carolina Panthers, before a hamstring injury ended his run.
The Chiefs did not tender him in March 2025. With Butker healthy, they had no need to roster two kickers, according to KC Kingdom. Indianapolis signed him to a two-year deal, and he made 13 of 14 field goals before a season-ending knee injury.
Shrader won the job over Blake Grupe this summer and went perfect through six games. His only misses, a 56-yarder and a 48-yarder, came in a Week 7 loss to Minnesota. Butker has missed seven times.
Indianapolis is 2-7 after five straight losses, fired general manager Chris Ballard on Oct. 19, and are selling Quenton Nelson and DeForest Buckner. The Colts have no 2027 first-round pick after the Sauce Gardner trade, and Shrader is in a contract year, according to ESPN.
Kickers rarely cost much. The Vikings paid a 2020 fifth-round pick for Kaare Vedvik in 2019, the highest price for a kicker in two decades, then waived him three weeks later. On 2023 cutdown day, three kickers changed teams for seventh-round picks. Those were Dustin Hopkins, Wil Lutz and Nick Folk. In 2024, Washington sent Cleveland a conditional seventh for Cade York.
Shrader’s 93 percent success rate and expiring contract point to a sixth-round pick as the realistic price, with a fifth as the ceiling.
Chiefs Trade Pitch Replaces Harrison Butker With 93% FG Kicker at Deadline