Who is Matthew Wright, the starting kicker for the Chiefs against the Raiders in week 13? Career stats, salary, contract...

The Kansas City Chiefs will be looking for a return to winning ways when they take on the Las Vegas Raiders on Friday.

The Thanksgiving weekend fixture pairs the reigning Super Bowl champions with one of the weakest teams in the West but the Chiefs are without a number of players due to injury. Key among those absences is starting kicker Harrison Butker, who was added to the team’s injured reserve list last month. The no. 2, Spencer Shrader, has picked up a hamstring injury so Matthew Wright looks set to start on Friday.

Wright was picked up by the Chiefs earlier this week and signed on a practice squad contract. The 28-year-old was actually signed to the Chiefs for the Super Bowl-winning 2022 season but has had a nomadic career in the NFL so far.

Which teams has Matthew Wright played for?

A lot of them. After going undrafted in the 2019 NFL Draft Wright subsequently signed a deal with the Pittsburgh Steelers but never saw any playing time in the NFL. He had a brief spell with the Tampa Bay Vipers in the XFL before returning to sign with the Steelers and make his NFL debut in 2020.

He went on to drift between teams, playing for the following from 2021 to 2024: Detroit Lions, Jacksonville Jaguars, Kansas City Chiefs, Pittsburgh Steelers, Kansas City Chiefs, Carolina Panthers, San Francisco 49ers, Atlanta Falcons, New England Patriots, Carolina Panthers, Pittsburgh Steelers, San Francisco 49ers and finally, for a third time, the Kansas City Chiefs.

Many of those stints were only as offseason or practice squad members but he does have an impressive conversion rate. Wright has made 43 of the 50 field goal attempts in his NFL career, a field goal percentage of 86%. His longest on record is a massive 59 yards.

Matthew Wright salary details for the Chiefs

The last contract signed by Wright was a one-year deal with the San Francisco 49ers, worth $1,055,000 in guaranteed salary. Throughout his time in the league Wright’s annual salary has nearly doubled since his rookie season with the Steelers.

That first contract was a three-year deal worth a total of $1,760,000, meaning an annual average salary of $586,667. He subsequently signed a one-year, $780,000 contract with the Jacksonville Jaguars in 2021.

It was in Jacksonville that Wright enjoyed the biggest success of his NFL career to date. In October 2021 Wright scored two crucial fourth quarter field goals to break the Jags' 20-game losing streak. Those two kicks were 53- and 54-yard field goals.

“There’s no bad blood between either of us,” Wright said of Josh Lambo, the Jags kicker he supplanted. “We’re both here to do the job, and we’re just competing, and he’s been really helpful, actually, with everything because he’s had quite a long, successful career, so he’s had some wise words for me.”

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