Harrison Butker is one of the better kickers in the NFL but 2025 was probably the worst year of his career. He missed five field goals, which were the second-most in his career and converted a career-low 88.6-percent of his extra points.
However, Butker doesn’t believe the struggles are his fault, instead he believes they have more to do with the rule changes.
Speaking to the media this week, Butker said that his efforts to hit “knuckleballs” on kickoffs as a result of the kickoff rule changes might have affected his field goals. He said that he had to change his approach to kickoffs in the middle of the season and it likely helped with his accuracy in the second half of the year.
“Field goals matter the most,” Butker said. “Trying to hit those knuckleballs and the funny kickoffs maybe affected the field goals a little bit. I think halfway through the season last year I said, forget the kickoffs — not forget the kickoffs — but I’m just gonna hit a high hang time ball, good location, just focus on the location. I’m not gonna hit a low line-drive knuckleball. And I think that’s helped my field goals because it’s the same foot-to-ball contact. Good foot-to-ball contact on the field goal and just do the same thing on the kickoff rather than having two different swings. So that helped me the second half of the season and I’m sticking with that for training camp and this season.”
Butker missed three field goals and two extra points in the first four weeks of 2025 then only two field goals and two extra points for the rest of the season after that. He still went on to finish fifth in both field goals made and field goals attempted.
The Kansas City Chiefs, as a whole, had a disaster 2025 season. They finished 6-11 with star quarterback Patrick Mahomes suffering a torn ACL.
They will kickoff the 2026 season at home against the Denver Broncos on Monday Night Football on Sept. 14.
