The Kansas City Chiefs now employ two kickers after signing Justin Tucker to the practice squad on Wednesday. Harrison Butker, the Chiefs’ placekicker since 2017, has struggled in recent games, but the signing of Tucker was not a move to replace the three-time Super Bowl champion specialist.
At the podium on Thursday, special teams coordinator Dave Toub clarified that acquiring Tucker is part of a plan to get the best out of Butker going forward.
“We haven’t had to do this, but we’re at the point now
where every position has competition, everybody has somebody behind them that’s ready to come up,” Toub told local media. “We went out and brought in three kickers and worked them out to get somebody onto the practice squad to be ready.”
Later in the press conference, Toub emphasized the Chiefs’ stance on the kicking position.
“Butker is our kicker. We’re trying to get Butker right,” Toub said. “That’s what this whole thing is about.”
To find the right player to be Butker’s understudy, Toub was talking with special-teams coaches around the league and assembled a trio of kickers that the team thought as “the best guys out there,” according to Toub. He had heard positive things about Tucker’s previous attempts at an NFL comeback.
“He had four workouts before; we were his fifth tryout,” Toub reminded. “The word was that he was hitting the ball great, and I wanted to see it. I always thought he was a great kicker, and those two guys, him and Harrison, idealized each other when they were kicking together.”
The next step was to put the tryout players through a rigorous placekicking circuit. Tucker excelled.
“I made a grueling workout for these guys; I had 30 kicks: 10 extra points, seven kicks over 50, one was a 60-yarder,” Toub remembered. “He made every kick. Not only did he make them, he was accurate: 60% of his kicks were inside of a six-foot cylinder in the middle of the uprights.”
“Somebody that is struggling as a kicker is not able to put the ball with that kind of accuracy on 30 kicks, so he was off the charts good,” Toub said. “That’s the reason we signed him to the practice squad.”
As Toub mentioned, Butker and Tucker were two of the league’s top kickers for a stretch of time. That experience is a key reason for the move, and something Toub seems to believe can sharpen Butker’s current shortcomings.
“Those two guys are collaborating now,” Toub shared. “Talking, ‘What did you go through?’”
“I’m a coach, I’m not a kicking guy, I don’t speak that language like those guys do,” Toub continued. “Yesterday was unbelievable, those two guys. They were talking about issues, talking about, ‘How did you handle it,’ and it’s been great. They’re professionals… that part of it has been good.”
With Tucker now on the practice field in Kansas City, Toub has already seen Butker lock in and have an impressive showing with a backup over his shoulder.
“He went 10 for 10 yesterday with Tucker standing right there,” Toub said. “On a windy day, it was 28 miles-per-hour gusts yesterday and he went 10 for 10… that’s a good thing. We’re going to keep working it.”
