Early on this season, amidst a 2-0 start where the Houston Texans have done some things very well and some things inconsistently well, there have been some remarkable individual performances. Perhaps nobody on the team has been mroe critical to the final outcome on the scoreboard this season than veteran kicker Ka’imi Fairbairn.
If you don’t believe me, then take it from Texans head coach DeMeco Ryans, who had this to say about his kicker following Sunday’s 19-13 win over the Chicago Bears:
“Nobody talks about it enough. ‘Imi’ [Ka’imi Fairbairn] is the reason why we won these two games. That’s been the player of the game. For him to hit, I don’t know how many, six 50-yard field goals, I don’t think that’s been done before. It’s very special for ‘Imi’. He’s been consistent. He’s on it. He’s the reason why we’re standing here. We talk a lot about offense and defense. The kicking game is the reason why we won this game today.”
As a result of his record-setting performance in the Sunday Night Football Week 2, win over Chicago, Fairbairn has been named AFC Special Teams Player of the Week, the NFL announced on Wednesday morning. Fairbairn becomes the second Texan in two weeks to take home a conference Player of the Week trophy, after Joe Mixon garnered AFC Offensive Player of the Week honors in Week 1.
In the Week 2 win, Fairbairn connected on all four of his field goal attempts, with the distances being an astounding 56, 47, 59 and 53 yards. The record-setting aspect of Fairbairn’s performance actually stems from a combination of Weeks 1 and 2, as he became the first kicker in NFL history with six 50-plus yard field goals within a two-game span.
Fairbairn was the only kicker in the NFL to make three field goals from beyond 50 yards in Week 2. Finally, he also became the first kicker in league history to make three 50-yard field goals in multiple games throughout their career. Amazingly, those two games were in back to back weeks!
This is the third such honor in Fairbairn’s career, tying him with Arian Foster and the late Jacoby Jones, and putting him behind only Matt Schaub (4), Deshaun Watson (5) and J.J. Watt (7) for total career Player of the Week accolades as a Texan.
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This article appears in Jan 1 – Dec 31, 2024.
