FLORHAM PARK, N.J. (AP) — The New York Jets' kicking carousel is spinning again.
Anders Carlson could be the team's fourth kicker in as many games when the Jets host the Indianapolis Colts on Sunday.
That's because Spencer Shrader, who made both of his field-goal attempts last week in his New York debut, was signed by Kansas City off the Jets' practice squad Thursday, a person familiar with the situation told The Associated Press.
The Chiefs needed a kicker after Harrison Butker was placed on injured reserve with a knee injury, according to the person who spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because the team had yet to announce the roster moves.
Carlson, who was signed to the Jets' practice squad last week, is likely to follow Greg Zuerlein, Riley Patterson and Shrader in New York's kicker shuffle.
Patterson, who’s a free agent, joined Austin Seibert, Ryan Santoso and Aldrick Rosas on the 2021 Detroit Lions, the most recent team to use different kickers in four straight games.
The only time the Jets have used four kickers at any point in a season was 1979, when they had Pat Leahy, Rich Szaro, Toni Linhart and Dave Jacobs.
Zuerlein was New York's kicker to start the season, but he was placed on IR with an injured non-kicking left leg on Oct. 30. Shrader and Riley Patterson were signed to the practice squad as replacements.
Patterson was signed to the active roster a few hours before the game against Houston on Oct. 31 and made both of his extra point attempts. But the Jets released him and promoted Shrader for the game at Arizona.
“I thought he handled it really well,” Jets special teams Brant Boyer said of Shrader less than 30 minutes before reports circulated that the Chiefs signed him. “Kid's got a lot of talent. I think he handled it well doing what we asked him to do and syncing up with those guys and doing a good job in the game, for sure.”
ESPN reported the Jets offered Shrader a spot on their 53-man active roster, but the kicker opted to go to the undefeated Chiefs.
Carlson was with San Francisco earlier this season and was 5 of 5 on field goal attempts and 3 of 4 on extra points in two games in place of the injured Jake Moody and Matthew Wright. He was a sixth-round pick of Green Bay last year out of Auburn and was 27 of 33 on field goals and 34 of 39 on extra points in 17 games as a rookie with the Packers.
Wide receiver Davante Adams missed his second straight day of practice with an illness and a sore wrist, but was seen in the locker room after practice and still could play Sunday. ... LB C.J. Mosley (neck), LT Tyron Smith (neck) and OL Jake Hanson (hamstring) also remained out. ... DL Solomon Thomas (knee) and CB Brandin Echols (concussion) returned to practice on a limited basis. Also limited were CB D.J. Reed (hip), RT Morgan Moses (knee), CB Michael Carter II (back), RG Alijah Vera-Tucker (ankle) and LB Chazz Surratt (heel).
AP Pro Football Writer Josh Dubow and AP Sports Writer Dave Skretta contributed to this report.
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New York Jets place kicker Spencer Shrader (40) kicks a field goal against the Arizona Cardinals during the first half of an NFL football game, Sunday, Nov. 10, 2024, in Glendale, Ariz. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
Long before the COVID-19 pandemic, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was building up a following with his anti-vaccine nonprofit group, Children’s Health Defense, and becoming one of the world’s most influential spreaders of fear and distrust around vaccines.
Now, President-elect Donald Trump says he will nominate Kennedy to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, which regulates vaccines.
Kennedy has long advanced the debunked idea that vaccines cause autism. He has also pushed other conspiracy theories, such as that COVID-19 could have been “ethnically targeted” to spare Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese people, comments he later said were taken out of context. He has repeatedly brought up the Holocaust when discussing vaccines and public health mandates.
No medical intervention is risk-free. But doctors and researchers have proven that risks from disease are generally far greater than the risks from vaccines.
Vaccines have been proven to be safe and effective in laboratory testing and in real world use in hundreds of millions of people over decades — they are considered among the most effective public health measures in history.
Kennedy has insisted that he is not anti-vaccine, saying he only wants vaccines to be rigorously tested, but he also has shown opposition to a wide range of immunizations. Kennedy said in a 2023 podcast interview that “There’s no vaccine that is safe and effective” and told Fox News that he still believes in the long-ago debunked idea that vaccines can cause autism. In a 2021 podcast he urged people to “resist” CDC guidelines on when kids should get vaccines.
“I see somebody on a hiking trail carrying a little baby and I say to him, better not get them vaccinated,” Kennedy said.
That same year, in a video promoting an anti-vaccine sticker campaign by his nonprofit, Kennedy appeared onscreen next to one sticker that declared “IF YOU’RE NOT AN ANTI-VAXXER YOU AREN’T PAYING ATTENTION.”
The World Health Organization has estimated that global immunization efforts have saved at least 154 million lives in the past 50 years.
In a study of verified Twitter accounts from 2021, researchers found Kennedy’s personal Twitter account was the top “superspreader” of vaccine misinformation on Twitter, responsible for 13% of all reshares of misinformation, more than three times the second most-retweeted account.
He has traveled to states including Connecticut, California and New York to lobby or sue over vaccine policies and has traveled the world to meet with anti-vaccine activists.
Kennedy has also aligned himself with businesses and special interests groups such as anti-vaccine chiropractors, who saw profit in slicing off a small portion of the larger health care market while spreading false or dubious health information.
An Associated Press investigation found one chiropractic group in California had donated $500,000 to Kennedy’s Children’s Health Defense, about one-sixth of the group’s fundraising that year. Another AP investigation found he was listed as an affiliate for an anti-vaccine video series, where he was ranked among the Top 10 for the series’ “Overall Sales Leaderboard.”
His group has co-published a number of anti-vaccine books that have been debunked. One, called “Cause Unknown,” is built on the false premise that sudden deaths of young, healthy people are spiking due to mass administration of COVID-19 vaccines. Experts say these rare medical emergencies are not new and have not become more prevalent.
An AP review of the book found dozens of individuals included in it died of known causes not related to vaccines, including suicide, choking while intoxicated, overdose and allergic reaction. One person died in 2019.
Children’s Health Defense currently has a lawsuit pending against a number of news organizations, among them The Associated Press, accusing them of violating antitrust laws by taking action to identify misinformation, including about COVID-19 and COVID-19 vaccines. Kennedy took leave from the group when he announced his run for president but is listed as one of its attorneys in the lawsuit.
FILE - Robert F. Kennedy Jr., speaks before Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump at a campaign event Nov. 1, 2024, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Morry Gash, File)
