In 2025, the Kansas City Chiefs’ assistant head coach and special teams coordinator Dave Toub has spent much of his time answering questions about the struggles of kicker Harrison Butker, who has missed
a total of six field goals and extra points this season.
Over the last two games, however, there has been less focus on Butker — mostly because the team’s now-electric offense has been scoring touchdowns; it hasn’t needed to kick a field goal since Week 6.
But on Thursday, Toub found himself explaining another recurring special teams issue.
Three weeks after penalties in the return game were a contributing factor in the Chiefs’ 31-28 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars, Toub’s unit committed three more during Monday’s 28-7 win over the Washington Commanders.
“It was bad in the return game,” Toub admitted to reporters. “We had three penalties. We had the penalties a couple of weeks ago. Then we didn’t have them — and now we have the penalties again.
“It’s a sign of a young group. We’ve got to keep working. We’re working hard, trying to finish people, but we’ve just got to learn — at the point of attack — when to finish and when to let off. That’s when the penalties come: right at the point of attack.
“I’m not mad at the effort the guys are giving. We want to keep that going. But at the same time, you’ve got to be smart, so we’ll keep working.”
The coach insists that on kickoff returns, holding is a leaguewide issue.
“There’s holding on every return,” Toub declared. “I’m telling you right now: there’s holding on every return. You can go watch it. You’ll see it. It’s just a matter of how blatant it is. That’s really what it comes down to.”
Still, he refused to follow the trend of blaming officials for subjective calls.
“When you go back and watch the tape,” explained Toub, “you see the penalty; you see what they saw. It wasn’t like these calls are coming out of nowhere. I see what they see, and then you can coach off it. You can see where you could’ve done a better job, and that’s all you can do — keep pounding it. We’ll keep getting better at it.”
Wide receiver Nikko Remigio has seen several of his big kick returns negated by fouls. Toub knows the penalties must be fixed to keep Remigio’s heroics in the box score.
“We’re better than what we’re playing right now,” he said. “We’re not getting those returns on the board, and when we do, we’re going to be where we should be. We’re just not there yet.”
But the Chiefs’ special teams did have a big moment in Monday’s game. Before the contest, Toub had expressed concern about Washington’s success in the return game, noting that it was leading the league in kickoff returns, routinely starting its post-kickoff drives near its own 35-yard line. The coach even pondered whether touchbacks (now moved to the 35 under the league’s new rules) would be a better choice than risking a return by the Commanders.
True to Toub’s prediction, on Kansas City’s two first-half kickoffs, Washington’s return team set its offense up at the 43- and 34-yard lines. On the first second-half kickoff, however, Butker perfectly placed the ball near the sideline — where it bounced off rookie wideout Jaylin Lane and went out of bounds at the Commanders’ 2-yard line.
Ultimately, the Chiefs went for touchbacks on Butker’s final two kickoffs as the focus shifted to preserving what was then a multiple-touchdown lead.
“We were up by three touchdowns — or two — whatever it was,” Toub recalled, “and we just said, ‘Let’s just kick the touchback here.’ You’ve got to respect teams that are hitting it on kick return. They were — and we’re going to keep getting better as we go.”
