When the NFL changed the kickoff rule two years ago, kickers began to experiment with different ways to kick the ball and make it harder to return. Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker says that affected his approach to kicking, and his field goals suffered.
Butker has had two straight seasons in which both his field goal rate and his extra point rate were below his career averages, and he says he thinks that’s because he was tinkering too much with his kicking motion on kickoffs, at the expense of having a consistent kicking motion on field goals.
“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’s down year was far from the biggest problem in Kansas City last season, but the Chiefs are hoping for a more consistent Butker this season — and hoping he’s back to making game-winning kicks in big games, after a season in which the Chiefs didn’t win many big games.
