The Kansas City Chiefs might be 10-1 and in sole possession of the best record in the NFL through the first 12 weeks of the 2024 season, but that doesn’t mean that luck has been fully on their side.

Sure, they’ve caught some breaks on their way to some of those wins, but they’ve also dealt with a slew of frustrating injuries – particularly in their wide receiver room. Prized free agent signing Hollywood Brown has yet to make his Chiefs debut, and it’s anyone’s best guess as to whether he’ll play at all this season after suffering a shoulder injury in Kansas City’s first preseason game. Their No. 1 target with Brown out, Rashee Rice, suffered a season-ending LCL tear. JuJu Smith-Schuster has been banged up for much of the season, and even Skyy Moore is currently on IR.

A big reason why Kansas City’s offense has struggled relative to their lofty expectations is because of the injuries to the receiver room.

Unfortunately, it appears as if the receiver room isn’t the only part of the team heavily impacted by the injury bug. Chiefs starting kicker Harrison Butker is currently on IR with a knee injury, and now, his replacement, Spencer Shrader, appears to be hurt as well. NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero reported that Shrader didn’t practice on Tuesday due to a right hamstring injury, and that the Chiefs have signed yet another kicker, Matthew Wright, to the practice squad.

Shrader has not been ruled out of Kansas City’s Week 13 game against the Las Vegas Raiders, but Wright being signed suggests that it’s far from a guarantee that Shrader will be able to go.

This is a really unfortunate injury update. Not only has Shrader gone 6-for-6 in extra points in the two games he has played in Butker’s place, but he has knocked down all three of his field goal attempts including a game-winner in their Week 12 game against the Carolina Panthers.

Losing a kicker might not seem like a big deal, but reliability at that position matters more than NFL fans give it credit for. Chiefs fans just saw the Denver Broncos lose a game at Arrowhead thanks to a blocked kick with the game on the line. The result of one kick could wind up playing a huge role in determining the outcome of any given game. The Chiefs might’ve just lost a kicker who has been reliable for them the last two weeks and replaced him with an unknown.

Matthew Wright has played in 25 games in his five-year NFL career, two of which came with Kansas City in 2022. He made all eight of his extra-point attempts and three of his four field goals during that short stint with Butker out.

The 28-year-old appeared in one game for the San Francisco 49ers this season, and made all four of his kicks. Three of the four were extra points.

Hopefully, given the fact that their Week 13 game is against the lowly Raiders, whether the Chiefs win or lose won’t come down to whoever is kicking field goals. Chiefs fans can only hope the team’s kicking situation can sort itself up by the time that a much tougher Week 14 matchup against the Los Angeles Chargers comes around. With all of the one-score games that the Chiefs have played in, they need reliability at the kicker position.