A Kansas City Chiefs injury will have Anders Carlson kicking for the New York Jets on Sunday.

Kansas City placed kicker Harrison Butker on injured reserve on Thursday because of a torn meniscus in his left knee. To fill in for Butker, the Chiefs signed Spencer Shrader off New York’s practice squad.

That left Carlson as the only kicker on the Jets’ roster. The former Auburn standout is on New York’s practice squad and will be elevated to active status to kick on Sunday when the Jets play the Indianapolis Colts at noon CST at MetLife Field in East Rutherford, New Jersey.

“We’re confident that Anders can get it done,” New York coach Jeff Ulbrich said on Friday. “He looked very good out there today. It was a windy day, a day that was challenging in a lot of ways and did a good job’

Carlson will be the fourth kicker in four games for the Jets.

New York placed Greg Zuerlein on injured reserve with a left knee injury on Oct. 30 after he had missed a 44-yard field-goal attempt and an extra-point try in a 25-22 loss to the New England Patriots in the Jets’ previous game.

The same day that Zuerlein went on IR, New York signed Shrader and Riley Patterson for the practice squad and used Patterson the next day in a 21-13 victory over the Houston Texans on Oct. 31. Patterson made his three kicks – all extra points. Houston returned four kickoffs for 106 yards after New York’s opponents had returned five kickoffs for 111 yards in the first eight games.

On Nov. 8, the Jets released Patterson and signed Carlson for their practice squad. Shrader got the call up for New York’s game against the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday and provided all the points with two field goals in a 31-6 loss.

Carlson came to the Jets after kicking in two games for the San Francisco 49ers. San Francisco signed Carlson after losing kickers Jake Moody and Matthew Wright in consecutive games while making tackles on kickoffs.

As a practice-squad elevation, Carlson made all five of his field-goal attempts and 3-of-4 extra-point tries while kicking for San Francisco in a 28-18 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs on Oct. 20 and 30-24 victory over the Dallas Cowboys on Oct. 27. Carlson made a career-long 55-yard field goal against Kansas City.

With Moody ready to return from his injury, the 49ers released Carlson on Nov. 6.

When he signed with San Francisco, Carlson had been a free agent since Aug. 27, when the Green Bay Packers released him after he served as the team’s kicker in the 2023 season.

Carlson joined the Packers as a sixth-round selection from Auburn in the 2023 NFL Draft. He displaced 16-year veteran Mason Crosby as Green Bay’s kicker and became the first rookie in league history to make a field goal in 17 regular-season games. But with the playoffs included, he also had the most misses on extra points with six and on total kicks with 13 in the NFL in 2023.

In his first NFL season, Carlson made 27-of-33 field-goal attempts and 34-of-39 extra-point tries in the regular season and 2-of-3 field-goal attempts and 7-of-8 extra-point tries in two postseason games.

In 2024, Green Bay had an offseason/training camp/preseason kicking competition between Carlson and Greg Joseph, who had been the Minnesota Vikings’ kicker for the previous three seasons. But when the time came to set the regular-season roster, the Packers cut Carlson and Joseph and claimed Brayden Narveson after he had been waived by the Tennessee Titans. Narveson has since been replaced by veteran Brandon McManus.

FOR MORE OF AL.COM’S COVERAGE OF THE NFL, GO TO OUR NFL PAGE

Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.