Chiefs' Toub Reveals Stunning Detail About ‘Mayday’ Field Goal

On the emergency 59-yard field goal to close the first half in Brazil last week, which amazingly didn’t allow time for officials to give Harrison Butker a ‘kicking’ ball:

“There's a lot of things that are involved in that. I mean, we have Mike Frazier, our analytics guy, he talks to us all the time about what happens if you get tackled and you get knocked back and the clock keeps running. He talks about the timing stuff all the time with the whole team. Coach (Andy Reid) gives me a lot of time in training camp and OTAs to work on those little things and, you know, the situational stuff that could come up. And we practice fast field goal. We call it Mayday. We practice that a lot, and it doesn't happen very often.

“It's a situation. There's a lot of things that have to happen for that. And when he (Noah Gray) got knocked back and didn't get out of bounds, going forward, and we knew right away, everybody was on the same page. Everybody knew, including Noah, that we had to go, we had to go Mayday. So, and everybody did a great job with it, including the guys that had to report (as eligible to the referee).

“And, Noah running the ball out and putting it down and us not changing the ball, not getting the ball changed. We kicked the quarterback ball. We didn't change. We didn't kick a kicking ball. That might have kept us from getting a shot at it. So, a lot of credit to everybody. The operation went smoothly. And, Butker nailed it. It was good to get three points right there.”

On the differences between a quarterback ball and a kicking ball:

“Yeah, a lot, a lot of difference, especially now because the league, they send us, I can't remember how many, but almost 100 balls to get ready for the whole season. And when I say get ready, I'm talking about working them in and softening them up and getting them ready to kick. To make it, it's like, you're not kicking a ball out of a box. And quarterback balls are different. They have different stuff on them, I don't know, it's like almost, like dirt, almost on the ball. And they’re a lot harder. So, they're not worked in near as much as a kicking ball would be so they're a little harder to kick. And you're looking at maybe 5 yards difference, between the two balls.”

On the clock time they practice with, for Mayday field goals:

“Well, 20 seconds is -- you can run a play and still run ‘fast’ without a timeout, and still run fast field goal and get it; that's comfortable. And then in practice, we practice, see how fast we can go. So, we take it, we start at 17. We go 16, 15, and we've done it in 15 seconds. But that's a perfect world. Everything is perfect. There's no referee involved, taking the ball and maybe, ‘Hey, we're gonna change. No, we're not gonna put it…’ None of that's going on in practice.

“So, you can get it off a little bit quicker. So 17, we knew that's like about as low as you can go in a regular season. I mean, there wasn't much time there for us to for a mistake, or any kind of a glitch with the referee, or anything to happen, for us not to get it off.

On whether they yell ‘Mayday’ on the sideline:

“Yeah … Early on, it was a Mayday situation before the penalties, before we had the two offsides, but we were in Mayday situation. If they get tackled short of the first down, it's Mayday  if they get tackled. First down, then they go up and they clock it. The offense clocks it. We got it and we relax, they get out of bounds. Mayday before, but the penalties, I mean, it just kept us knocking us back. And I said, ‘Hey, now this is definitely a Mayday?’ I mean, we're third-and -whatever-it-was, 17? I said, ‘This is a Mayday situation when it's rare we're going to get the first down.’ So, whatever we get, if we're tackled in bounds … so, we were ready to go.”

On how often they practice that drill with all 11 players, rather than just the snapper, holder and kicker:

“We do it with all 11 during training camp, not during the season; we don't do it, but training camp and OTAs, we do with all 11. We have an offensive play run, and I give them the situation. I tell them, we're going to get it here, we're going to be short, and we're going to get it in a made situation. You guys clock it. So, we set it up that way.”

On clarifying whether it’s been more than a week since they practiced it with the 11 that were on the field:

“It's been training camp, yeah. Yeah, the 11 that ended up on the field, of the 11 that are intended to be on there. Like, you saw where Hollywood (Brown) was on the other side of the field. He was the last one off the field. He actually started to get lined up as an out for an offensive play. Then he had to run off. He was the last one off.

“Yeah, everybody knows who the field-goal team is, yeah. So, with Noah (Gray). I mean, Noah's on the field goal-team. Yeah, the guy catching the pass. I mean, if it’s not the guy catching the pass, would make it that much harder, right? There would just be another guy coming off the sideline, another tight end would come in and be that guy, and then, don't run off the field; that's where you might lose.”

“I mean, whoever has, whoever's catching the ball, and we practice that, too. You might not be on the field-goal team. But whoever catches it has to run the ball up and get it to the official, or put it on the ground. You don't want to just throw the ball to some different guy, you want to try to keep it in play. I mean, those are all the coaching points.”

On the Eagles’ special teams:

“Yeah, we do have a game coming up. Yeah, the Eagles. The Eagles are good. I mean, obviously they're world champions. They play really hard, very well-coached. Coach (Michael) Clay does a great job with them. They got a lot of guys back, when you look at them. (Will) Shipley was a returner. We don't know about him; he was injured late yesterday, so we're not sure he's going to play. They did get (Tank) Bigsby. So, he's a returner. So, we think we're going to get him back there in kick-return. The punter, (Braden) Mann, is excellent. The kicker, (Jake) Elliott, he's got good range.”

On his kickoff-returners in Week 1

“I really like Tyquan (Thornton) at return, and then, obviously, (Xavier) Worthy got hurt, so we had to take him out of that. Now, he's like the third or second wide receiver, so it's going to be tough to use him back there now. So, we're going to have to dig down into our depth a little bit this week and have some different guys back there.

“Brashard (Smith), he had a couple nice returns. He had nice, nice one. He probably should have saved one. Should saved the one in the end zone, take the ball to the 35, but he got it out to 35 so that was nice.”

On whether they use a kicking ball during Mayday practice in training camp:

“Oh, we don't. We don't do the substitution. We don't do that in practice. We just, that's why I said, it's a perfect world."

On whether he communicates with officials in advance of the Mayday field goal:

“No, they're pretty well coached up. If they you run it out there, they kind of work with you. They're not going to slow it down. You know? They understand what you're trying to, intending to do, and they get it lined up pretty quick for you. But that's the part that you don't know. That's the unknown; that's where you have to build in a couple seconds there.”