Kansas City Chiefs: Be thankful for Harrison Butker

By Leigh Oleszczak | Sep 19, 2018

Kansas City Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker kicks an extra point in the first quarter following a touchdown by Kareem Hunt against the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday, Sept. 16, 2018 at Heinz Field in Pittsburgh, Pa. (John Sleezer/Kansas City Star/TNS via Getty Images) /

Several NFL teams have had their fair share of problems when it comes to kicking this year. Fortunately the Kansas City Chiefs don’t have that problem through the first two weeks.

This time last year, the Kansas City Chiefs were about at the end of their tenure with Cairo Santos. After Santos landed on injured reserve, the Chiefs swiped rookie Harrison Butker off the Carolina Panthers practice squad and he was amazing during his first year in the pros.

Butker finished his rookie season going 38 of 42 on field goal attempts and a perfect 28 for 28 on extra point attempts. Butker wouldn’t have had to shine so much for the Chiefs had the offense been better at putting the football in the end zone whenever they got into the red zone. Thankfully, he was clutch in the moments he was asked to step up and kick one through the uprights.

So far this season, the NFL has seen a lot of problems when it comes to kickers. The two main examples from over the weekend were Daniel Carlson of the Minnesota Vikings and Zane Gonzalez of the Cleveland Browns.

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Carlson had multiple chances to win it for the Vikings, but missed his opportunities. That forced the Vikings into a tie with the Green Bay Packers when they should have stolen that game on the road at Lambeau.

Gonzalez had it even worse though, failing in two straight games. He missed what would have been the game winner against Pittsburgh and the Browns missed out on winning their first game since 2016.

The next week, he missed both a crucial extra point that would have given Cleveland the lead and later missed what would have been a game-tying attempt. The Browns went on to lose that game in New Orleans by three points.

All of this rambling about bad kickers in the NFL this year leads me to the main point of this article: Let’s be thankful for Harrison Butker, Chiefs fans. So far this year, the Georgia Tech kicker is a perfect 11 for 11 on extra point attempts and made the only field goal attempt he had to knock through the uprights.

Those two kickers alone should make Chiefs Kingdom thankful for their clutch kicker. Butker might not be the best kicker in the league, but he does what’s asked of him and that’s all the Chiefs can ask of him.

When it comes down a field goal in a close game, Kansas City Chiefs fans won’t be nearly as nervous as those teams that have had kicking woes to start the year. That’s definitely a good thing.

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