Chiefs ST Coach Reveals Reason for Harrison Butker’s Struggles
Role players have certainly helped along the way, but the Kansas City Chiefs‘ ongoing dynasty is largely thanks to their championship core. Players like Patrick Mahomes, Travis Kelce, Chris Jones and others headline that annual list.
Kicker Harrison Butker is also among that group, but he isn’t playing like it to start the 2025-26 campaign. Is that a reason for concern, or is it merely a matter of a small sample size swaying the numbers?
Dave Toub Explains Why Harrison Butker Isn’t Thriving to Start Season
That’s what special teams coordinator Dave Toub is setting out to decipher. Speaking to the media ahead of Week 4’s tilt against the Baltimore Ravens, he addressed Butker’s early-season shortcomings.
Toub believes it’s more of a mechanical issue than an unsolvable problem.
“We’re assuming that right now, that it’s just a small little thing,” Toub said. “It’s technical. We look at the tape and we see. It’s an unusual miss for him to miss it right, so it’s got to be his ball contact. We’ve just got to work harder — not harder, but smarter — in practice. He doesn’t need to do more, because 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. That’s what you do — you go back, you go from scratch and you evaluate it, talk about it, look at the tape, you build your confidence back and then you go.”
In the past, Butker’s occasional struggles could be linked to injury. That isn’t the case this time around, so Toub admits it’s somewhat unfamiliar territory.
“Haven’t had too many guys that had a long slump, you know?” Toub said. “Hopefully, this week is the start of a new streak, a good streak. That’s the way we always look at it: it’s always about the next kick. I haven’t had too many guys that had a slump over a three- or four-week period.”
The current plan is to strip things down to the studs and get back to basics.
Chiefs to Focus on Short-Range Field Goals Moving Forward
Through three games, Butker’s numbers leave a bit to be desired.
He’s 7-for-9 on the field goals, good for 77.8%. He’s also just 3-for-5 on extra points (60%), which could be even more alarming. Week 3’s Sunday Night Football bout with the New York Giants saw the nine-year veteran doink one field goal off the crossbar in a lucky make, then miss another wide right. Additionally, he whiffed on a point-after once it was moved back due to an unsportsmanlike conduct flag on running back Kareem Hunt.
Butker is a perfect 3-for-3 on kicks between 20-39 yards. It’s his attempts from 40-49 (1-for-2), 50-plus (3-for-4) and the extra points that are drawing the wrong kind of attention. Despite that, Toub says he and the Chiefs will push for more short-range execution in practice.
“That’s one of the things that we talked about,” Toub said. “We kick a lot of long kicks in practice. We’ll kind of just be a little bit more specific with it. We’re going to kick more shorter kicks and less longer kicks, because the shorter kicks are the ones you have to have. Obviously, we want to try to get the longer 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.”
Butker, who signed a four-year contract extension last offseason, is the highest-paid kicker in the NFL. Since converting on a career-high 94.3% of his field goals in 2023, however, he’s been good for 82.4% of those and 88.9% of his extra points. Is this the new normal, or can he get back to peak form for a team that desperately needs it?
The next several weeks should reveal that answer.
Bills QB Josh Allen Lashes Out at ‘Mad’ Buffalo Fans
The Buffalo Bills are one of just a couple of teams left in the NFL this season with a 3-0 record, so there’s really no reason the team’s followers should be mad. But, you can never please everyone, and some in Buffalo still want to see some more action out of this Bills squad.
The Bills have successfully beat their first three opponents of the season, including the Baltimore Ravens, so, yes, there is really no reason to be mad at this franchise. But, MVP-winning quarterback Josh Allen is clapping back at some of the doubters who still criticize how the Bills are getting things done.
In the end, what matters most is that the Buffalo Bills pull off a win. It doesn’t have to be pretty, and people can have their opinions about it, but as long as the Bills are winning, what more can one want?
Josh Allen Talks Buffalo Bills Winning Streak
The Buffalo Bills are 3-0, and they could very well go to 4-0 on Sunday, September 28, against the New Orleans Saints, who are 0-3. There’s literally no way the Saints are feeling confident going into this game.
On offense this season, the Buffalo Bills head up the league in yards with 420 yards per game and are fourth in points. There haven’t been many wild, exciting moments on the field that people want to watch over and over again this season, but Allen knows that’s not what matters. Winning is what matters.
“Taking care of the football, that’s my main job, you know, take care of the football and score points,” he told the press on Wednesday, September 24. He added that “each and every play doesn’t need to be a home run, but as long as we’re taking singles and finding completions and staying in front of the sticks and scoring points, you can’t argue with the results.”
Allen also talked about those who are “mad” about the team not pushing the ball down the field. He doesn’t listen to those critics.
“I just want to win football games,” Allen said. “People are mad we’re not pushing the ball down field…and it’s just like we’re just trying to win football games, whatever that may be, and sometimes it’s not gonna be that easy.”
He continued, “It’s not going to be be, hey, we need to check it. Sometimes we’re going to have to take some chances down the field, and when those opportunities come up, we’re going to have to make them, but until then we’re just going to keep doing what we’re doing.”
Josh Allen Talks New Buffalo Bills Playing Field
Next season, the Buffalo Bills will be playing in the new Highmark Stadium. For Allen, the most important part of this project is the playing surface, which will be natural.
For a few years now, the NFL Players Association has said that teams should switch to natural fields, for the safety of their players. For the 2025-26 season, 17 of 32 teams play their home games on some variety of artificial turf.
“We’re grass, brother,” the star quarterback said when talking about the new stadium’s field surface on The Pat McAfee Show. “We were told about it. We like grass.” Allen said that he has some turf burns on his legs.
