The Kansas City Chiefs have waived/injured Cairo Santos, and according to Matt Derrick of Chiefs Digest, he won’t be back.
Am told K Cairo Santos won't return to Chiefs if he clears waivers by injury settlement. Free to sign elsewhere once clearing waivers.
— Matt Derrick (@mattderrick) September 30, 2017
The news is a little strange given the fact that the Chiefs originally placed Santos on Injured Reserve last week and said there would be a chance he could return.
That must have changed when they saw what they had in rookie Harrison Butker, who they signed off the Carolina Panthers practice squad.
“[Butker] is a good kicker,” special teams coordinator Dave Toub said Friday. “He was our number one guy coming out this year as a rookie, we had him ranked number one. So if we were going to draft a guy he was going to be the guy we would probably target. So we felt good about him coming out, we just weren’t looking for a kicker at that time. It’s funny how things work and now all of a sudden we’ve got him. We’re happy with him, he’s a good kid.”
My thought here is the Chiefs like Butker and he will save them a lot of money.
The 25-year-old Santos was due to become an unrestricted free agent after the 2017 season, and the Chiefs would have had to likely sign him for north of 3 million dollars.
Butker is due to become an exclusive rights free agent (ERFA) in 2018, meaning the Chiefs hold his rights and can sign him for way less money than what they would have had to pay Santos.
Santos finishes his Chiefs career 89 of 105 for 84.8 percent, his most memorable moment coming in Denver on Sunday Night Football last year, when he doinked a 34-yard field goal off the post for a walkoff overtime win.
I imagine you will see Santos in another uniform as soon as he’s healthy.