For years, the Kansas City Chiefs could rely on Harrison Butker to lead them the distance if needed. Time and time again, Butker delivered in high-stakes situations, becoming an instrumental piece to a three-time Super Bowl-winning dynasty.
Notably, that hasn't been the case in the past couple of years. The once-flawless kicker has left plenty of points on the field in recent seasons, prompting doubts about his future with the organization.
That's why, with the Chiefs looking to bounce back after the worst year of the Andy Reid era, they might finally run out of patience with Butker. He might be on borrowed time, even if his contract is a major issue.
2026 is a make-or-break season for Harrison Butker
Butker is signed through the 2028 season, and he'll make $5.7 million in 2027 and 2028. However, the Chiefs can move on from him after this year and only take on $2.8 million in dead cap, per Spotrac. It's not ideal, but it's clearly better than watching him miss routine kicks.
Butker has converted just 85.7 percent of his field goal kicks over the last two seasons and missed six of 66 PATs. These are both career-worst averages for the 30-year-old kicker. Once considered a positive asset, Butker registered a -0.8965 Kick Value Added (KVA) in 2025, ranking 26th among 43 qualified players last season
For those who aren't familiar with that metric, FanSided's Adam Fromal designed it to determine how much value a kicker adds to his team relative to league expectations at the same distances across the field. As such, a negative KVA means the kicker is actually costing his team, as Fromal explains.
Advanced metrics aside, it became painfully evident that Butker simply wasn't the same last season. Kicking is as much mental as it is physical, and he looked rattled and tuned out at times, missing kicks and lacking both power and accuracy on kickoffs he used to make in his sleep.
Teams aren't usually patient with special teams players, especially kickers. They're quick to pull the plug on players after a single bad game, but Butker has earned the benefit of the doubt after everything he's accomplished in his career.
That said, the Chiefs simply cannot afford to get sentimental right now. This is a business first and foremost, and they will face an uphill challenge to get back to the mountaintop. They can't have any weak links. If Butker cannot show marked improvement in 2026, it doesn't matter how much he's done for the team in the past; he may be out the door.
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