Chiefs coach explains fascinating technique quirk that left everyone thinking Harrison Butker injured himself again
Kansas City Chiefs K Harrison Butker made his return from injured reserve in Week 15 against the Cleveland Browns, but it wasn't without incident. During the 21-7 win, Butker missed a routine 29-yard field goal just before the end of the half. The missed field goal left everyone, including CBS play-by-play broadcaster Ian Eagle, wondering whether or […]
Kansas City Chiefs K Harrison Butker made his return from injured reserve in Week 15 against the Cleveland Browns, but it wasn't without incident.
During the 21-7 win, Butker missed a routine 29-yard field goal just before the end of the half. The missed field goal left everyone, including CBS play-by-play broadcaster Ian Eagle, wondering whether or not Butker had just reinjured his left knee.
"That leg buckled once again," Eagle said. "We saw that leading up to him being placed on IR. Remember, the procedure that was done was not on his kicking leg. It was on his left leg. The left knee."
So, did Butker hurt himself on the play, collapsing on his previously injured left knee? No. In fact, Chiefs special teams coordinator Dave Toub insists that Butker is healthy and closing in on being 100% in his return from injury. But why did he collapse on his left knee if that's the case? Toub had a fascinating explanation of that.
"That's his technique," Toub said. "People are just noticing now because it's his bad knee. So, they're looking at that leg, but all year long, his technique is to collapse that leg after he follows through. Most kickers, if you watch them, they plant, they kick, and then they hop on that leg. That leg gets replaced. He keeps his foot planted, and then his knee breaks, and then he's then he steps through with his right leg. Now, he developed that technique after he got injured at the Arizona game, you know, a couple of years ago. So that's, that's something that's developed over time. You can't just change your technique as you get injured all of a sudden and go back to the other. So, he's going to keep the same technique. And that's all that was, right there."
A former NFL punter actually caught wind of this technique change when Butker initially went on injured reserve and made a thread on it.
Toub didn't necessarily have an answer on the benefit of Butker collapsing on his left knee during his follow through. He said it was debatable whether it gave him more power behind his kicks or helped with accuracy. It really seems like it's simply about Butker putting himself in a comfortable situation with his kicks after sustaining his ankle injury in Week 1 of the 2022 NFL season. Since 2023, Butker has made 51 of 56 field goal attempts, all using that knee-collapse follow-through.
So, what exactly happened with the missed field goal? Toub says that it was just an operation error and that Matt Araiza and James Winchester weren't prepared to get out on the field to make the kick. What should have happened? With just 24 seconds left on the clock in the first half and two timeouts, Toub should have communicated to Coach Reid that they needed to take a timeout.
"I need to do a better job of communicating to the holder and the snapper that we were going to kick the field goal," Toub said. "I just assumed that they were together, but they weren't, and that was my fault. . . Anytime you get an operation out of sync like that, whether they have to rush or somebody's not there, you know, that puts a toll on it. And I think that's what happened there. I'll take the blame. It was my fault."
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