KC Chiefs: Harrison Butker’s missed extra points are a major concern
Despite nailing some clutch kicks this season, Harrison Butker has now missed six extra points for the KC Chiefs.
It’s been a very up and down season for Kansas City Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker. The biggest storyline surrounding Butker this year has been his struggles with extra points and for good reason. Butker is 27 of 33 on extra points through the first nine games, meaning he’s missed six of them – a touchdown’s worth of extra points.
It’s a complicated situation with Butker. On the one hand, here’s a guy who kicked a 58 yard field goal not once, not twice, but THRICE against the Chargers in Week 2, lifting the Chiefs to a victory they didn’t deserve.
As a whole, Butker is still as solid of a kicker as there is in the NFL. He’s 15 of 17 on field goal attempts this season, going 3 for 3 on field goal attempts of 50+ yards. The two field goals he’s missed were in the 40-49 yard range.
Harrison Butker’s struggles with extra points could come back to haunt the KC Chiefs.
This might not seem like a big deal now, but it very well could be down the road. It almost bit KC in the butt on Sunday, as the Panthers were down by just two points and could have walked it off with a field goal (fortunately, Joey Slye missed on the 67 yarder as time expired). If Butker makes the extra point, it’s a three-point game and the field goal only ties it.
The Chiefs have won most of their games pretty handily to this point, but it won’t be that way all the time. If the Chiefs are in a tightly contested game in the playoffs and Butker misses an extra point early on, that could be the difference between a comfortable finish or another nail biter.
Something else to think about is should the Chiefs need seven points to tie things up at the end of a game. What if they get the touchdown and all that the game is hinging on is Butker’s extra point attempt? Will any member of Chiefs Kingdom be breathing easily during that time? Wouldn’t a missed extra point to tie the game as time expires be a very Chiefs way to lose? (Come on, admit it)
Harrison Butker is still a very good kicker, but he’s missed an entire touchdown’s worth of extra points through nine games this season. It might be something that fans find themselves turning a blind eye to, but it really should concern Chiefs fans because this could end up proving costly down the road.
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The Chiefs are a team that’s typically good at fixing their weaknesses and this is most definitely a weakness for them. Hopefully Dave Toub can work with Butker on this and get it figured out because losing a playoff game (or any game for that matter) because of a missed extra point would be excruciating.