Surviving the kitchen sink approach and other Chiefs takeaways from Week 9
By Matt Conner
The Truth about Butker
Harrison Butker missed another extra point on Sunday. He also connected on a 55-yard field goal that helped keep the Chiefs within striking distance in the first half.
Therein lies the tension regarding Butker these days. The Chiefs locked up Butker with a five-year extension just last year for good reason: he is an incredible kicker. Few kickers in the National Football League have the sort of powerful leg that he has, especially one so accurate on his kicks. Earlier this year, the conversation for best in the NFL was between him and Justin Tucker of the Baltimore Ravens. Then came the yips.
Butker missed his first extra point in Week 2 against the Chargers. He missed another in Week 3 against the Baltimore Ravens and Week 4 against the New England Patriots. He made all three attempts in Week 5 only to miss extra points in both Week 6 and 7 against the Buffalo Bills and Denver Broncos respectively.
Before this season, Butker had made 138 of 145 extra point attempts in his career, good for a 95.2 percent success rate. That’s 7 career misses from 2017 to 2019. This year, Butker has missed 6 already and his success rate has fallen to 81.8 percent (27 of 33).
If you peruse social media for any length of time, the backlash against Butker these days is pretty prominent, but what’s lost in that shuffle is that Butker’s body of work overall places him in the upper echelon of all NFL kickers and, even this season, he’s only missed two field goals on the year—including a missed 48-yard attempt in windy conditions against the Panthers to close the first half.
On the year, Butker has converted 15 of 17 field goals and his range gives the Chiefs a real opportunity to score even when drives are stalled at midfield.
Somehow, Butker both sides are true. Butker is still every bit the weapon he was before and there’s no reason for the Chiefs to be worried enough to replace him. That said, missing chip shots from up close is obviously problematic and the Chiefs are lucky it hasn’t cost them yet.