Arrowhead Pride
Through three games of the 2025 season, the Kansas City Chiefs’ placekicker Harrison Butker has had some struggles. He’s missed two of nine field goal attempts and two of five extra points — one of the latter from 48 yards after a penalty.
But special teams coordinator Dave Toub isn’t sounding any alarms. Instead, he believes his placekicker only needs to make some small adjustments — and a reset in approach.
“We’re assuming right now that it’s just a small little thing,” Toub told reporters this week. “It’s technical. We look at the tape and see it’s an unusual miss for him: to miss it [to the] right. So it’s got to be his ball contact.
“He doesn’t need to do more; he does a lot already. If anything, we need to cut down what he does and get more specific on making sure the contact is good — [and] the rotation of the ball and the fundamentals are down.”
Toub said the staff is treating the slump as a chance to get back to basics.
“You go back from scratch,” he explained. “You evaluate it, you talk about it, you look at the tape, you build your confidence back — and then you go.”
Toub acknowledged that they’re also working on adjusting Butker’s balance between accuracy and distance.
“That’s one of the things we talked about,” Toub said. “We kick a lot of long kicks in practice. We’re going to kick more shorter kicks and less longer kicks, because the shorter kicks are the ones that you have to have. Obviously, you want to try to get the long ones too, but we can’t spend our time doing that. We have to get more specific and talk about the accuracy of the ball on those shorter kicks. That’s what we’re going to do.”
Toub also dismissed any lingering concerns after Butker’s knee injury last season.
“He’s in a good spot now because he has confidence in his ankle and he’s not dropping down,” he noted. “That’s not the issue right now. It’s just the ball contact — the way his foot’s hitting the ball. [He’s] leaving it outside instead of following through. But it’s not the knee. There’s nothing with that.”
Now entering his 25th season as an NFL special teams coach, Toub’s experience suggests the best approach to keep Butker’s focus forward.
“I haven’t had too many guys that had a long slump,” he said. “Hopefully this week is the start of a new streak — a good streak. That’s what we always look at: it’s always about the next kick.”
