One Chiefs star who could be just as important as Mahomes or Kelce against Miami

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The Kansas City Chiefs season is on the line Saturday, and reports indicate it could be a chilly afternoon at Arrowhead.

Weather often plays a significant factor in these playoff tilts, and all signs point to that being the case when the Chiefs and Miami Dolphins lock horns.

As reported earlier this week the National Weather Service projects Saturday’s forecast for this encounter to be 7 degrees Fahrenheit or -13 Celsius.

Wind chills could be a factor too, with gusts as high as 29 mph.

If projections are correct, you’d think special teams may determine the outcome.

The Kicking Comparisons

Playoff time is when the kicking game is magnified with a field goal miss, a botched convert, a shanked punt, or an out-of-bounds kick-off potentially costing your team the game.

The opposite, though, is also true that if you rise to the occasion, you’ll go down as a hero or legend.

Adam Vinatieri saw his status rise from a dependable kicker to a legend in the 2001 NFL season, making a game-tying and game-winning field goal in the snowy and windy conditions of Foxborough against the Oakland Raiders.

Vinatieri was clutch from that point on in his career, making two game-winning Super Bowl field goals with the Patriots.

Regardless of the weather you can bet the Dolphins’ and Chiefs’ kicking games will be a factor this weekend.

The Chiefs Harrison Butker and Miami’s Jason Sanders know the feeling of stepping up to win a big game.

On Christmas Eve this season, Sanders made a 29-yard walk-off field goal to propel the Dolphins to a 22-20 victory over the Dallas Cowboys.

That was the biggest pressure kick of that encounter, though it wasn’t his most challenging, with Sanders connecting on a single-season franchise record three 50+ yard field goals.

In Week Three, he connected on an NFL-record 10 converts in a lopsided 70-20 victory over the Denver Broncos.

Like Vinatieri, Butker knows the feeling of making a field goal with the weight of the world on his shoulders.

Butker booted the game-winning field goal in the AFC Championship and Super Bowl last season.

Tale of the Tape

Both Sanders and Butker have made clutch kicks.

In 2023, Butker had the second-highest field goal percentage (94.3%), missing just two attempts.

Sanders missed four field goals this season, all from 50+ yards away.

Butker’s misses were from much closer range, failing to connect twice between the 30-39-yard mark.

One of Butker’s misses can be attributed to the referees errors at Foxborough, inexplicably deflating the balls, while both kickers have dealt with bad conditions.

Miami isn’t known as a winter wonderland like KC, but getting your footing right and hitting the ball with the right amount of power during a downpour is no easy task.

As for Butker, he knows Arrowhead’s winds and field conditions can be unforgiving and require plenty of leg strength and accuracy.

In his career, Sanders’ highest field goal percentage was in 2020 at 92.3%, though he’s only featured in one playoff game, going 1 for 2 in the bone-chilling and snowy conditions in Buffalo last season.

Butker’s field goal percentage of 94.3 in 2023 is the highest of his career, hitting in the 90% or above mark three times.

He has 15 games of playoff experience, going 2 for 2 in the 2018 and 2019 seasons, but missing at least once during every other postseason run.

Both kickers are capable, but whoever adapts to the conditions best might propel their team to victory on Saturday.