KC Chiefs Kicker Harrison Butker Deserves His Flowers
Harrison Butker is back. It’s not that he went anywhere, though.
Butker has been a part of the Kansas City Chiefs organization since late September of his rookie season in 2017, and he’s one of the longest-tenured members of the team. However, last season he dealt with some adversity while battling an injury and missing a month of the schedule. This is what presumably led to some inconsistency in his kicking game for the first time in his career.
Butker converted a career-low 77.4% of his field goal attempts last season. That was over 10% lower than his previous low of 87.9%. Butker had been one of the most consistent kickers in the league throughout his young career. Many labeled him the second-best kicker in the league behind Baltimore Ravens veteran Justin Tucker. Right now, you could make a case that Butker is in the driver’s seat at the top of the list.
Butker has been criticized in the past for missing extra points, or barely making shorter field goals by just fitting the m inside the uprights. Some of the criticism was justified, but most of the time, it was way overblown by the fan base. Butker has been at his best when the stage is the biggest and the lights are shining the brightest.
Three games specifically come to mind: The '13 seconds' game against the Buffalo Bills in the 2022 AFC Divisional Round, the 2023 AFC Championship Game and Super Bowl LVII. Butker made huge field goals in each of those games. It gets lost in the shuffle of amazing things that happened in that outing against the Bills, but he needed to make a field goal at the end of that 13-second drive to send that game into overtime. Butker calmly stepped up and made the kick, the Chiefs won the coin toss in overtime and the rest is history.
In last season’s AFC Championship game against the Bengals, the Chiefs' offense was struggling to score points. Butker made the first six points of the game for the Chiefs before both teams ended up knotted up at 20 through most of the fourth quarter. After a Patrick Mahomes scramble to get into field goal range, Butker stepped in, wind in his face, and kicked the game-winning field goal to send the Chiefs to another Super Bowl.
Then the Super Bowl happened. Both teams put up a lot of points, but Butker was once again the hero at the end of the day. He was 5-for-5 on extra points and made a go-ahead field goal with less than five seconds remaining in the game, giving the Chiefs their second Super Bowl victory in the past three years.
If there were any doubters left who didn’t believe Butker was back after his performances in the playoffs last season, then his hot start to the 2023 campaign should be enough to calm the nerves of any anxious Chiefs fans. Butker is 15-for-15 on extra-point attempts this season. After his 4-for-4 performance in Week 6, Butker is now 14-for-14 on field goal attempts this season. There have been none more impressive than a 60-yard field goal (sent toward the goal posts with strong, swirling winds) that split the uprights with room to spare as time expired at the end of the first half of the game against the Denver Broncos that gave the Chiefs a 13-0 lead.
On a night when the Chiefs' offense struggled mightily in the red zone, Butker was there to pick the team up. When the Broncos scored late in the game to cut the Chiefs' lead to 16-8, the Chiefs were able to get into field goal range to give Butker a chance to put the game away. Did anyone doubt the outcome? Butker nailed a 52-yard field goal to seal the Chiefs' 16th consecutive win over the Broncos, this one ending with a final score of 19-8.
While many kickers have up-and-down careers, moving around from team to team to try and find a home as they journey through their professional life, Butker has been a staple of this championship era of Chiefs football. He continues to hit big kicks time and time again. When it comes to the kicking game, his consistency tends to be overlooked. Butker is on pace to have the best season of his career, and the Chiefs may need him to continue to step up as they are looking to win back-to-back Super Bowls for the first time in franchise history. Keep looking for Butker to come up big in clutch situations, just like he has done throughout his entire career. There’s no other kicker in the league I’d rather want in there with the game on the line.
