The Kansas City Chiefs are showing strong loyalty to kicker Harrison Butker this week after a missed 51-yard field goal in Week 9, his seventh miss of the year. With Justin Tucker on the practice squad, the Chiefs are standing their ground, believing it’s all about pushing Butker out of a slump.
It started Wednesday, when head coach Andy Reid said the team is “sticking with” him. During his press conference on Thursday, special teams coordinator Dave Toub reiterated that faith in the team’s longtime
placekicker.
“He’s going to come through it,” Toub said. “I’m confident that he will; we’re just going to keep practicing him and keep working on little things; he’s looked good in practice. There’s a reason why he’s still our kicker.”
The miss against the New York Jets was Butker’s fourth consecutive game with a missed field goal; two of them featured multiple missed kicks when including point-after attempts. It’s likely the worst stretch of Butker’s nine-year career in Kansas City.
“It bothers him, it bothers him a lot,” Toub said. “It’s hard for somebody that has kicked at the level that he has kicked at to have this happen in front of 70,000 people. He hears it, he knows it, the pressure is on him, but I have confidence.”
“There’s a weight on him,” Toub continued. “We have to get a 100% day, and then we have to put the second one in and the third one and the fourth one.”
To give an example of a veteran kicker that has come out of a slump, Toub pointed to Buffalo Bills kicker Tyler Bass, who missed five extra points and five field goals in 2024 and didn’t play in 2025.
“He’s got like 25 in a row right now,” Toub pointed out about Bass. “He was struggling last year. So we’re sticking with [Butker], and we’re hoping that he starts a streak this weekend.”
As the Chiefs stand behind Butker, working with Tucker off to the side at practice to make sure he’s ready, the coaching staff is honest about Butker’s issue.
“It’s a mental thing,” Toub noted. “You just have to be more aggressive, put the ball down the middle and take a shot. Don’t try to be perfect with the targets. Those are little things that we’re working on, and he just has to power through this thing and get a little streak going right now.”
“Attack it, instead of trying to be perfect.”
