Harrison Butker’s Slump: What Chiefs Coaches Are Saying After 3 Misses

On whether Harrison Butker’s struggles are the result of something big or something small:

“Yeah, we're, we're assuming that right now, that it's just the small, little thing. It's technical. We look at the tape and we see, it's an unusual miss for him to be miss it right. So, it's got to be the way his contact, his ball contact. And we just got to work not harder, but smarter, in practice. He doesn't need to do more, because he does a lot already. If anything, we need to cut down what he does and get more specific on making sure that the contact is good and the rotation of the ball and the fundamentals are down.

“You just go back. That's what you do. You go back, and you go from scratch and you evaluate it, and you talk about it, and you look at the tape, and you build your confidence back. And then you go.”

On his experience with kickers in similar stretches:

“Haven't had too many guys that had a long slump. I mean, hopefully, this week is the start of a new streak, a good streak. So, I mean, that's what we always look at. It's always about the next kick. And I haven't had too many guys that had a slump over a three- or four-week period.”

On whether he’s fighting a battle between accuracy and distance:

“That's one of the things that we talked about, and we kick a lot of long kicks in practice, and we're kind of -- just to be a little bit more specific with it -- we're going to kick more shorter kicks and less longer kicks, because the shorter kicks are the ones that you know you have to have.

“We obviously want to try to get the long ones, too, but we can't spend our time doing that. We have to get more specific and talk about the accuracy of the ball. On those shorter kicks, that's what we're going to do.”

On Butker’s follow-through, or changes needed – anything related to last year:

“No, we're not going to change. He's in a good spot now because he has confidence in his ankle, and he's not dropping down. But that's not the issue right now. It's just the ball contact, the way his foot’s hitting the ball and leaving it outside instead of following through. But it's not the knee. There's nothing with that.”

On the blocked kicks around the league this last week:

“I just think it was the week, just the luck of it. I mean, they're trying to block them. I mean, everybody is. I think there was some low kicks in there, if you look at it, some issues,  particularly in the blocking on the one team (the Eagles), where they had two, against the Rams,  so you got to get that fixed during the game. If you have one, you got to get it fixed right away, because we're going to keep coming back at it.

“And I think they did that, in that A gap. So, it's just, I think it was just one of those weeks where it just, it was a lot of them. Going into our week, I mean, going into our game, by the time we played (on Sunday night), we already knew that there was a bunch of blocks, and we said, ‘Hey, let's join the crowd.’ I mean, obviously, we got our block in that game, but Graham Gano got hurt, and they had the left-footed punter in there kicking and different holder. But we took advantage of the situation. So, I was happy, pleased that we were able to get one.”

On protecting against blocked kicks, and using other team’s mistakes as teaching moments:

“I mean, just like we look at all the big plays that happen and we say, ‘We always look at the other side. It’s a great play, but why did it happen?’ You're always evaluating guys, and you're always doing a lot of self-scout, looking at yourself, seeing that could happen to us if we were not careful. And make the corrections, even though it wasn't you that was playing.”

On opponent starting field position after Butker’s kickoffs:

“Our kickoff, we're doing a good job on our kickoff. I'm not as pleased with our kickoff return.  It's only been three games, had we had the longer return that (Tyquan Thornton) gotten the first game, called back (by penalty), and it would have been totally different. But right now, we're still trying to get our kickoff return team going a little bit more.

“But I'm pleased with our kickoff team, the way it's going so far. Butker is able to move the ball, makes it tough for the kickoff-return team. And those young players, guys like (Jeffrey) Bassa is making great plays for us, and Cooper (McDonald). And so, it’s working well right now.”

On how close the Chiefs have come to blocking a punt:

“Yeah, Chamarri Conner was real close. I mean, we had a block called, and he came free, and he was there, but the ball, I mean, it just, just went by his hand. It was a well-executed play by our guys. I mean, that would have been a big play earlier in that Giants game. And he's a good player. He's tough to handle.”