Arrowhead Pride
The Kansas City Chiefs’ placekicker Harrison Butker has faced some early-season scrutiny after a rough stretch that included three missed field goals, a missed extra point and a costly kickoff miscue that contributed to Monday’s 31-28 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars.
But despite the chatter, head coach Andy Reid isn’t worried.
“Like any golfer — you guys have all golfed — sometimes you’re hitting it good and other times you’re off,” Reid told reporters on Wednesday. “But you work through it and you keep swinging, man. He’ll do that. He’s a talented kid; [he’s] mentally tough. I’m not really worried about him.”
Last season, Butker went 21-for-25 on field goal attempts, converting at an 84% rate while averaging 88% for his career. This year, he’s fallen to 76.9%. Two of his three misses came from beyond 50 yards, while the other was a 40-yarder against the New York Giants in Week 3.
Special teams coordinator Dave Toub senses the frustration over Butker’s recent mistakes. He was quick to point out some positive signs for the longtime Chiefs kicker, who converted all four of his extra-point attempts during Monday’s loss.
“He was 100 percent last week — and he’s 100 percent so far this week,” noted Toub on Thursday. “We kick again today. I think he’s on an uptrend with his field goals. That’s the No. 1 thing.”
While Butker was perfect on his scoring attempts last week, it was his fourth-quarter kickoff — which sailed out of bounds to set up favorable field position for the Jaguars’ game-winning drive — that defined the night for him.
According to Toub, part of that stemmed from a coaching decision.
“He tried to get it to the right,” said the coordinator. “We had a special kickoff coverage because we wanted to pin them down there. We wanted to get it down as far right as we could. He just went a little bit too far right, obviously. He had a mishit ball at a bad time. We lost probably about 10 yards on that.
“The thing that’s so disappointing is that most of the time, we’re the ones setting our team up. This was the time it didn’t happen — and that’s what makes it so disappointing.”
Toub explained how the league’s new kickoff rules have added complexity to his unit’s approach.
“The idea for that kick is that we’re trying to kick it to the right because we’re getting our coverage down there,” he said. “If we kick it in the middle, then they have a two-way go and it’s a little bit harder to get them inside the 30. We were trying to get them inside the 30. It’s almost impossible to get them inside the 20 now unless you skip the ball into the end zone — but then you’re taking a chance. If you try to skip it and it’s short, they get the ball at the 40 anyway. So we were just trying to get it down there...
