Can the Chiefs Most Reliable Leg Find Their Rhythm Again?

Kansas City kicker Harrison Butker, known throughout Chiefs Kingdom as ‘Butt Kicker,’ spent the 2025 NFL season in a slump that has fans worried. Picked by the Carolina Panthers in the seventh round of the 2017 draft out of Georgia Tech, where he became their all-time scorer, Butker was on the Panthers practice squad when he was waived and signed by Kansas City in September of that year. Since then, Butker has enjoyed a Hall of Fame-caliber career with an 88.2 field goal percentage, which is fourth in league history. In Super Bowl LVIII, the longest field goal in that game’s history was made off his right foot, traveling 57 yards to split the uprights against the San Francisco 49ers.

Given the big-game kicker’s storied career in Kansas City, his current downward trend of missing not only field goals but PATs during the Chiefs’ 2025 campaign has fans struggling with that reality, but what of the team? Well, if Butker’s 2024 contract extension is any indication, he should be safe in Kansas City, for now. With a four-year, $25.6 million extension, 2026 would have to be catastrophic for Butker for the Chiefs to even consider moving off him, which would incur a $10 million dead cap hit, another $10 million hit in 2027, and a $1.4 million hit in 2028. No thanks, however, for the 2026 season, Harrison needs to perform better than he did in 2025, which was his worst year statistically. He was 33 of 38 for field goals and 31 of 35 for PATs for an average of 86.8 percent and 88.6 percent, respectively, a definite downswing from his usual average of about 90 percent.

So, what options are available to Kansas City for the 2026 season in the wake of Butker’s 2025 performance, in which he was ranked 21st in field goals and 38th in PATs last year? Not many. Given the substantial contract between the veteran kicker and Kansas City, signing a free agent wouldn’t make sense, especially since it’s unlikely that a free agent would be as good as Butker has been. Talk among fans and media created the speculation that someone would be brought onto the practice squad to foster competition in the kicking room, but the return of veteran long-snapper James Winchester, just signed to a one-year $1.75 million contract extension, speaks to the contrary. Winchester and Butker have been a special teams unit for nine seasons, and it seems Kansas City wants to maintain that energy and drive.

Kansas City’s silent scorer’s history of high performance and clutch kicks has earned Butker some well-earned grace in Kansas, and it seems, at least for the 2026 season, the team is going to bet on him coming through this slump. For all the speculation about Butker’s future with the team he’s gone to seven-straight AFC Championships with, winning three out of five Super Bowls, he was still the fifth-ranked kicker in 2025. It seems ‘ol ‘Butt Kicker’ has fallen victim to his own success, measured against the bar he raised at Arrowhead. In a city that’s grown used to routine brilliance from its kicker, even a minor dip suddenly looks like a headline.