Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker kicked a 69-yard field goal on the final play of the first half Saturday night.
Butker and the Chiefs celebrated as if it was an NFL record . . . and it would have been had it been the regular season.
Jaguars kicker Cam Little kicked a 68-yard field during a Nov. 2, 2025, game against the Raiders to set the record. Little had a 70-yard field goal as time expired against the Steelers in the 2025 preseason.
Butker’s kick cleared the crossbar by a few yards.
He also had field goals of 45 and 58 yards in the first half as the Chiefs lead the Bucs 9-0 at halftime.
On Saturday night, the Buccaneers will host the Chiefs for a preseason game. And the contest will be called, from the home team’s perspective, by Jon Gruden and Ronde Barber. Gruden will be handling the play-by-play duties, with Barber acting as the analyst.
But it sounds as if it will be far from a traditional broadcast. Via JoeBucsFan.com, Gruden recently addressed the plan for the effort in an appearance on The Ronde Barber Show.
“This might be a concept, you never know,” Gruden said. “This concept could be a game-changer in the broadcast booth. . . . I mean, there’s been a conventional way. I sat up there for nine years and did it. Mike Tirico, there was a cadence. ‘First-and-10, it’s da-ta-da-ta-da-ta-da,’ and then you have to be timely in your responses and get out before the next play. But I think as long as we’re on the same page, we love Tampa Bay Buccaneers. We’re going to try to really educate the fans on some of the position battles, just the excitement of opening day in our stadium.”
It will be interesting to see how they handle the game. It was always difficult to envision Gruden sticking to the nuts and bolts of what’s happening during a play without blurting out “what the hell was that?” before laying out for Barber’s input.
And maybe it will be a game-changer. Maybe, in time, the current formula of non-athlete narrator of the action plus one or two former players or coaches will be replaced by two or three former players and coaches who supplement the visuals with the kind of commentary that will pivot from describing what we can all see to peeling back the curtain as to what’s really happening.
But here’s the key — it can’t be a bunch of jargon. It has to be communicated in a way that makes it seem simple and easy to understand by a casual fan.
However it goes, we’ve heard that Gruden and Barber have been putting in a lot of work to prepare for this. They have a strategy. We’ll find out on Saturday night how they execute it.
Last year, the Buccaneers started strong, at 6-2. It ended with a 2-7 meltdown.
Many have blamed coach Todd Bowles for the collapse. Defensive tackle Vita Vea does not.
Vea shared on Thursday his thoughts about what went wrong last year.
“There’s a bunch of stuff,” Vea said, via JoeBucsFan.com. “I feel like I kind of want to set the record straight. I feel like [there is] a lot of stuff going about on Bowles. I feel like none of it is Bowles’ fault; I feel like we all love Bowles, the players in the locker room.
“So that’s one thing I want to set the record straight at; we all love Bowles. It’s not what he’s doing. You know, he’s telling us what to do, giving us all the answers to the test and it’s on us players to be able to go out there and execute what he’s telling us to do. He’s always putting us in the best position to play. So, that’s one of the main things, is being able to take coaching.
“And in that light, if anything, blame us players for not executing. Bowles always puts us in the best position to win games. I even told Bowles, the day he retires is the day I retire.”
Bowles arrived as Tampa Bay’s defensive coordinator in 2019, Vea’s second NFL season.
Despite Vea’s defense of Bowles, it feels like the heat is on for 2026. The NFC South is wide open, and the Bucs are the betting favorites to win it.
If they don’t, an ownership group that hasn’t hesitated to make changes could be looking to make another one.
Defensive tackle Vita Vea’s contract impasse with the Buccaneers came to an end on Wednesday when he agreed to a one-year extension that ties him to the team through 2027 with $30 million in new money.
That agreement came after Vea requested a trade heading into training camp, but Vea said at a Thursday press conference that his intent was never to move to another club. Vea said that “home is where the heart is” and made it clear that his heart was always in Tampa.
“I always wanted to be a Buc,” Vea said. “I wanted to be a Buc for life. That’s why I’m glad we were able to get this done. This is something that happens every year, it just so happened to be me this year. There’s just stuff we had to figure out on both sides and we got it all squared away.”
Vea has not practiced this summer and the word at Bucs camp has been that he’s been sidelined after tweaking his back during a conditioning test. Vea won’t play this week and head coach Todd Bowles said that he won’t play in the preseason finale either, but the new contract should clear the way for him to get ready for Week 1.
The Buccaneers announced the one-year extension for defensive lineman Vita Vea on Wednesday.
The deal took longer and was more acrimonious than expected, with Vea requesting a trade before holding in at training camp. Ultimately, though, both sides got what they wanted.
The Bucs will have Vea through at least the 2027 season, and Vea received $30 million in new money.
“Vita is exactly the type of player and person we want to build around in Tampa Bay,” General Manager Jason Licht said in a statement. “He has been a dominant force in the middle of our defense, an exceptional teammate, and a tremendous leader in our locker room. One of the keys to our recent success has been our ability to draft, develop and re-sign core, foundational players who set the standard for what it means to be a Buccaneer. As one of our team leaders, Vita has played a big role in establishing that winning culture, and we are excited to have him continuing to help lead the way as we pursue our next championship.”
Vea, the 12th overall selection in the 2018 draft, has appeared in 112 games with 107 starts over the past eight seasons. He has recorded 256 tackles, 35 sacks, 48 tackles, 79 quarterback hits, three forced fumbles, three fumble recoveries and nine passes defensed.
His 35 sacks rank eighth in franchise history.
