Chiefs vs. Jets: Sorting out the winners and losers from Week 8
By Matt Conner
Winner: Harrison Butker
For the first time in several weeks, we’re not talking about Harrison Butker—one way or the other. Given how the conversation has been going lately, that’s likely a welcome change for the Chiefs extraordinary kicker.
We’re very high on Butker here at AA, so for those of you who want to pile on about some ultimately meaningless missed extra points, you’ll need to find a different audience. That said, we will admit that Butker has been shockingly shaky (say that three times fast) from up close this year with five missed PATs in the first half of the season.
What’s amazing about Butker this year is that he’s been automatic on field goals, to the tune of a 93 percent conversion rate with 13 makes in 14 attempts. His jaw-dropping performance against the L.A. Chargers not only saved the Chiefs from an embarrassing loss against a division rival, but it turned heads around the league after nailing successive 58(!) yard attempts.
On the flip side, Butker came into Week 8 with a miserable 73 percent conversion rate on his PAT attempts through 7 games. On Sunday, however, he made all five extra points, his only kicking attempts on the day. Given the offensive overload and the defensive dominance, Butker is an afterthought on a day like this, a guy who simply went out and did his job to the tune of five points. That’s a good thing this week as Butker seems to have put any case of the yips behind him.