The Kansas City Chiefs have agreed to terms on a contract extension with kicker Harrison Butker, according to Ian Rapoport of NFL Media. Butker, 29, was entering the final season of a five-year contract worth just over $20 million. Adam Schefter of ESPN tweeted further details.
It’s a four-year, $25.6 million deal with $17.57 million guaranteed, according to Schefter, who also noted that Butker negotiated the deal himself as his own representative.
Butker, who was originally drafted by the Carolina Panthers in 2017, has been one of the league’s best kickers since the Chiefs added him from the Panthers’ practice squad later that year. Butker has hit 89% of his career field goal attempts, going 33-for-35 last season. His career playoff numbers are consistent with his regular-season standard, boasting an 89% success rate on playoff field goals, going 32-for-36 including a perfect 11-for-11 campaign in the Chiefs’ most recent Super Bowl run.
Butker confirmed his extension with a post on Twitter/X shortly after the report made news.
Due to the NFL’s upcoming changes to kickoffs in the 2024 season, there had been some debate as to what Butker’s role would be on kickoffs in ’24, with safety Justin Reid presenting an interesting skill set for a player who would be a much better tackler in coverage while being a less-precise kicker. Early in training camp (with Reid sidelined due to a leg injury), special teams coordinator Dave Toub ended the mystery.
“Butker’s gonna be our main kickoff guy,” Toub said. “I mean, hands down. Because he can move the ball and do a lot of different things. He’s our most talented kickoff guy. Other guys that can kick off, Justin and [former rugby star] Louis [Rees-Zammit], he’ll be able to kick off and be able to cover, so you just want them to get the ball into the target zone, where you’re trying to pin them down there, just with a good kick, and you’ve actually got 11 guys covering instead of 10.”
Butker spent time in headlines this offseason for a controversial commencement speech he delivered at Benedictine College in May. An order of nuns affiliated with the school later denounced Butker’s comments.
After an offseason practice in May, Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes discussed how he and the team were handling the coverage and content of Butker’s speech.
“There are certain things he said that I don’t necessarily agree with, but I understand the person he is,” Mahomes said. “He’s trying to do everything he can to lead people in the right direction and that might not be the same values as I have, but at the same time, I’m going to judge him by the character he shows every single day that’s a great person. We’ll continue to move along and try to help build each other up to make ourselves better every single day, but at the end of the day, we’re going to come together as a team and I think that’ll help out [in] eliminating those distractions outside the building as well.”
