Kansas City Chiefs: All-Decade Team for 2010s
2010S ALL-DECADE TEAM – KICKER
STARTER: HARRISON BUTKER
ALTERNATE: CAIRO SANTOS
The Chiefs only had three kickers in the 2010s and all three of them were good, so it made the kicker position difficult to narrow down. We ultimately went with Harrison Butker as the starting kicker (that sounds weird) with Cairo Santos serving as his backup.
Butker won the job due to being as clutch as they come at the position. He joined the Chiefs early on in the 2017 season and never relinquished the job. He has made 89% of his field goals while knocking through 95% of his extra point attempts.
It was a tough decision for the backup kicking job between Santos and Ryan Succopp, but we decided to go with Santos, who made 84.4% of his field goal attempts. He had a better extra point percentage than Butker with a 96.2%, but keep in mind that extra points got moved back a few years ago.
If the all-decade team were to take the field and play a game and things came down to a field goal, fans would want Harrison Butker out there at the kicker spot.
2010S ALL-DECADE TEAM – PUNTER
STARTER: DUSTIN COLQUITT
ALTERNATE: N/A
This was the easiest entry on the list because there was only one possible entry and that’s Dustin Colquitt. The Chiefs drafted Colquitt in the third round in the 2005 NFL Draft and I’m sure at the time people were upset that they spent a high pick on a punter, but my guess is those people don’t feel that way anymore.
During his time as the Chiefs punter, Colquitt has only missed two games during his career, but both of those games came in 2008. In other words, Colquitt has been the only Chiefs punter in the 2010s and no one is surprised that he’s still rocking and rolling.
In this decade, Colquitt has been named to two Pro Bowls (2012 and 2016) and has consistently been one of the best in the league. At 37 years old at the end of the 2019 season, Colquitt is likely nearing the end of his career and the fact that he managed to stay with the same team for his entire career, especially at a position like punter, is a testament to how good he’s been throughout his career.
2010S ALL-DECADE TEAM – LONG SNAPPER
STARTER: JAMES WINCHESTER
ALTERNATE: N/A
This is a hard one to gauge since we only really notice long snappers when they screw up, but James Winchester has handled the long snapping duties for the Chiefs since the 2015 season. He might not be the next Kendall Gammon, but he’s been a steady force at the position for KC this decade.