Throughout their numerous playoff runs in the recent past, the Kansas City Chiefs have always been able to count on kicker Harrison Butker to deliver better results than anyone else could. The proof is in the pudding, as the 29-year-old made all 11 of his field goal tries a year ago and fell short just one time in each of his previous three postseason stretches.
Ironically, Butker's been one of Kansas City's least reliable stars since returning from a knee injury suffered in November. Despite his inconsistent performance over the last few weeks, his coaching staff doesn't seem even one bit concerned about it.
That includes head coach Andy Reid. Speaking to the media on Friday, Reid backed his kicker and described him as a "perfectionist" who's going to get things right for when it matters most.
"Yeah, sure, he's working through that and he'll be fine," Reid said. "He's a hard worker. That's what he does, and he's a perfectionist on everything. He'll just keep cranking, and I think he's getting better every day as he goes through this."
Since coming back from his meniscus issue, Butker is 3-for-5 on field goal tries. That four-game stretch is bookended by 0-for-1 showings in both Week 15's win over the Cleveland Browns and Week 18's loss to the Denver Broncos. He's missed one extra point try over that span, which was on Christmas Day versus the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Context, however, is important here. A five-kick sample size shouldn't be quite enough to hit the panic button regarding Butker's viability moving forward. The Broncos miss, specifically, was a 51-yard boot. While Butker is so good that it's become second nature to anticipate a make when he attempts long-range field goals, it isn't a guarantee. Not only that, but Butker has worked through injuries before and figured out what works best in time for playoff football. The benefit of the doubt exists.
Such an example was two years ago. Many have wondered about Butker's perceived change in technique on kicks but, as special teams coordinator Dave Toub outlined last month, his Week 1 injury from the 2022-23 campaign caused it in the first place.
"That's his technique," Toub said. "His technique is to break, his leg comes down. People are just noticing that because it's his knee and it's bent, so they're looking at that leg. But all year long, his technique is to collapse that leg after he follows through. Most kickers, if you watch them, they plant, they kick and then they hop on that leg. That leg gets replaced. He keeps his foot planted and then his knee breaks, and then he steps through with his right leg. He developed that technique after he got injured in the Arizona game a couple of years ago. That's something that's developed over time. You can't just change your technique because you got injured [and] now all of a sudden, he's going to go back to the other. He's going to keep the same technique, and that's all that was right there."
With the Spencer Shrader and Matthew Wright eras in the books, things have mostly gotten back to normal for Toub's special teams unit. Now, the hope is that Butker can get that percentage as close to 100 as possible.
