- 17 hours ago
Harrison Butker’s 63% field goal rate is actively costing the Chiefs. It's time to separate nostalgia from reality and make a change at kicker.
Despite Kansas City's victory over the Jets, the Harrison Butker dilemma has reached a breaking point. Setting aside politics, off-field beliefs, and past Super Bowl heroics, the NFL is a production-based league. Butker is currently 2-for-8 on field goals beyond 50 yards and kicking under 65% on the season. W
Despite Kansas City's victory over the Jets, the Harrison Butker dilemma has reached a breaking point. Setting aside politics, off-field beliefs, and past Super Bowl heroics, the NFL is a production-based league. Butker is currently 2-for-8 on field goals beyond 50 yards and kicking under 65% on the season. W
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00:00All right. Text line 913-586-7965. We can open up the phone lines and take some calls on this
00:10as well. I understand the Chiefs won yesterday and it is great that they won yesterday. It really
00:15is. I led the show with it. The Chiefs over the last two years, they haven't really BTA'd a lot
00:23of teams. They deserve a lot of credit for what they did yesterday. There was never a moment in
00:29which I thought they were going to lose to the Jets. The second half was comfortable,
00:35was easy. It allowed you the opportunity to kick off your shoes and relax your feet and
00:41party on down to the X skate beat. It was great. Phenomenal. We are not going to be talking
00:48about the Jets game on Wednesday. There ain't that much to talk about from that game. Chiefs
00:53good, Jets bad. But what were the things that happened in the game that to me have a much
00:59larger consequence? What are the things that happen in the game that we are going to be
01:04talking about on Wednesday or Thursday or next week? What's part of the bigger picture?
01:10And number one on that list is their kicker. So Spector and I were talking today and just
01:17going over the things with Harrison Bucker. And as we were talking, I was writing some things
01:25down as what I think is the dilemma for a lot of people with Harrison Bucker, both in a good
01:32and
01:32a bad way. Now I am not, I am not naive to this fact. Harrison Bucker has burned up a
01:41lot of the
01:42goodwill amongst cheese fans with a portion of their fan base. Not everybody, but we all live in the
01:51same country. We all live in the same political climate. There are some people who love Harrison
01:57Bucker, who agree with him, who stand by him, who echo a lot of his same sentiments. You would be
02:04naive to not know that there are some people that are adamantly opposed to Harrison Bucker and what
02:12they feel he represents. Now, I don't have a problem with that. I don't agree with everybody.
02:19Everybody doesn't agree with me, but in the end, it's a very simple pass or fail. And can you get
02:26the job done or can you not get the job done? And I think a lot of people, most people
02:33are usually
02:34in the camp that I am. Hey, that might not be my favorite guy. Hey, I don't really align myself,
02:41but we at least got to be honest about this. It's not like we think Harrison Bucker is a criminal
02:46like we think Harrison Bucker has done anything wrong. He just shares a different value system
02:51than you have. He holds a different belief system than you have. He's allowed to feel that way.
02:55Just like to me, you're allowed to disagree with that value system. We're all adults here.
03:01I think people are willing to put up with it until you no longer serve them a purpose.
03:08And I think for a large portion of Chiefs fans, this rings true. I don't really like Harrison
03:15Bucker, but I put up with it because he was very good at his job. He now is bad at
03:21his job.
03:22So you're asking me now to stand by a guy that I really wasn't standing by before.
03:28I wasn't standing by this guy. Now you want me to stand by him when it is obvious that they
03:33need
03:33to make a change, which I think is obvious. I think if you are still holding on to Harrison Bucker,
03:40you are holding on to nostalgia. You are holding on to what he's done in the past. Now that's the
03:47other part of this conversation with Harrison Bucker that I also think is very difficult to move on from
03:52some people. Harrison Bucker has made some really important kicks for this team. He's been very,
03:59very good in the most important games. And I think people are still either holding on to that feeling
04:05or holding on to, well, wait until the games get more important. Honey, no, no, I'm not going to put
04:14him in that position. I'm not going to trust him to get to that position based on what he's showing
04:19me
04:20now. He's missing all of these kicks. Now you want me to roll the dice based off nostalgia, based off
04:27what
04:27he did in the past, but we know that's not how sports work. I know it's always difficult to see
04:34it and
04:34acknowledge it when it's your own. And it's easy to acknowledge it when a Broncos player is at the
04:40end. It's easy to acknowledge it when it's a bills player, man. It's hard to have that conversation with
04:45yourself. It's hard to have that conversation with your family member that you got to let go.
04:51And that's what I feel like we're doing with some portion of the Chiefs fan when it comes to Harrison
04:55Bucker. None of the feelings that I have today about them needing to get rid of them. They're not an
05:02indication of how I think his career is gone. His career has been fantastic. He's the Chiefs ring of
05:08honor guy. His name should be up there next to Neil Smith and Derek Thomas and Joe Montana and Patrick
05:15Mahomes as one of the most important players in Chiefs history. But he's it's over. It's done today.
05:24We got a lot of great memories, but that's not where we are right now. And what's the abbreviation for
05:30the
05:30NFL? It's not for long. This is a, what have you done for me lately? Kind of league. How can
05:35the money
05:35that you paid me two weeks ago? How can that help me today? I can't spend that money anymore. It's
05:39already spent. I'm hungry today. I need more money today to pay for the things that I need.
05:45He can't help you with that anymore. So I think that some of it right now is a culture battle
05:50of how people feel about Harrison Bucker. And you're allowed to feel however you want to feel
05:54about Harrison Bucker. What Harrison Bucker thinks does not bother me, does not impact my life in any way.
05:58Feel how you want to feel. I don't care. It ain't hurting you really to let him feel the way
06:02that he wants
06:02to feel. So I don't know why you care so much about it. The nostalgia from what he did for
06:07me in the
06:08past, it, it doesn't matter to me anymore. It's over. Those are moments that have passed. Those are
06:14games that they have won. You can't go back and unwin those games. You can't now lose those games,
06:20but you can lose these games coming up in the future. Another thing that I think that we've done
06:26in this Harrison Bucker conversation, and I get it because we all think that we can be general
06:32manager. We all think that, Hey, I understand the salary cap and you want to be good with the
06:38imaginary resources that they've given you. We've really, really oversold this cap space. And if
06:45they cut Harrison Bucker, we really, really oversold it. Harrison Bucker is making 2.4% of the chief
06:54salary cap 2.4. And you got to remember they played games this season. So that's money that's been paid
07:00out. Like that's money. They've already paid. They owe Harrison Bucker right now, a little less
07:08than $3 million. This is not like, if you want to cut Chris Jones, this is not like right now,
07:14if you wanted to cut Travis Kelsey, yeah, that's a substantial hit for the Kansas city chiefs
07:20cutting this small amount of their cap at this portion of the season is not a thing anymore.
07:25And if that's not a move that you're willing to make, because this guy is actively hurting you,
07:31you're an unserious organization. That's not trying to win the ultimate prize. That amount of money for
07:37an NFL team is a small amount of money. We're talking about that's a little bit more than double
07:43what they, they, they cut Demercado for this amount of money. They paid Demercado. They just let
07:49them go here. We guarantee, we guaranteed you this money. You didn't make the team. That's fine.
07:53Go play for another team. So I don't have any problem with the financials. If they just say
08:00you're done kicking for us today, like the money, the cap space, all of that stuff, Harrison Bucker's
08:05contract is not preventing them from doing anything that they want or need to do. It is not stopping
08:10them from making a trade. It is not stopping them from improving their roster. He is not making that
08:15much money in a big scheme of things. Now, next year, sure, they will save more money by cutting
08:21Harrison Bucker, but it is what it is now at this point. It is what it is. The last thing,
08:28and I get
08:29why people feel this way. I really do. Because Spector and I were talking about this, and his point
08:37was, if the other option was an option that people liked, that the city would be much more turned up
08:44about it. If the option, for example, was Harrison Mevis, who played at Mizzou, if the option was
08:51random kicker with no past, and that was the other option, people would be more on the side of,
08:58let's replace him, let's replace him, let's replace him. I think you guys know where I stand
09:03on Justin Tucker. I feel like I've been very clear about where I stand on Justin Tucker.
09:08At this point, not playing morality police, I just want simply the best man to go out there
09:16and perform. I'm not tied to Justin Tucker doing the job. If you give Justin Tucker two weeks to
09:22be the kicker, and you don't feel like that's an improvement over Harrison Bucker, then release
09:27Justin Tucker and go find another kicker. It's quite literally one of the cheapest positions on the
09:34field. We're not talking about going to find another quarterback if you're the Minnesota Vikings
09:38or you're deficient at pass rush. Yeah, that's an expensive thing to try to solve. Kicker is one
09:44of the smallest things that you can try to solve. So I don't want anybody to take my, you should
09:50move
09:50on from Harrison Bucker as me standing with Justin Tucker or promotion of Justin Tucker. I simply want
09:58the best man for the job because I think the job is important. I think this is something that you
10:03need
10:04to be good at in order to win the most important games of the year. You don't need the best
10:08kicker
10:09to win the Super Bowl. You can't have one of the worst kickers. This is the league that games are
10:14defined by good teams in one score, one game situations. This is a league right now where you
10:20have to be able to kick field goals over 50 yards. Everybody can do it. This is like trying to
10:25win a
10:26basketball game with a team that can't shoot threes. That's really difficult. That's difficult to do
10:30in 2026. You can win some of the games. If you can't shoot threes, you can't win all of them.
10:35If you can't shoot threes, you can't win a Super Bowl. You cannot win a championship. If your kicker
10:41can't kick 50 yard field goals, I'm sorry, you can't do it. It's impossible to me. In my opinion,
10:45a drive is going to stall. Something's going to happen. You're going to need to rely on that guy
10:49and trust them. And you simply can't trust Harrison Bucker. So Nathan, I'm happy to hear
10:53from you. Text line 913-586-7965. I'm happy to take you guys' phone calls on this. We got Mitch
10:59Holtz coming up in about 30 minutes or so. I understand what Harrison Bucker has done for
11:04the Chiefs organization, and I'm not trying to take that away from him. I'm not. But just because you
11:10were really good at a job for 20, 25 years, and now you are unable to do the job, that
11:16doesn't mean
11:16that your company shouldn't be able to fire you. Yes, you should be replaced. You can no longer
11:21do the job. Now, let that person go with dignity and class for what they've done. But I'm sorry,
11:27Grandpa, you can't drive anymore. You got to give me the keys. We got to get you a driver,
11:32or we got to do something different, but you can't drive the car anymore. I understand about
11:37the salary cap. I do. We spend a lot of time talking about the cap. We got to quit making
11:41it seem like
11:42the money is what's a deterrent here. It's not that much money in the NFL sense. We're talking about
11:46a salary cap at $300-something million, and we're talking about them cutting a $3 million player
11:51who was underperforming. We would not be doing this. If this was a punt returner or a kick returner as
11:57bad as Harrison Bucker, we would not be talking about you got to keep that guy because of the
12:00money. If this is a running back that couldn't hold on to the football, we wouldn't be doing this.
12:04If this was a guy that couldn't block at left or right tackle, we wouldn't be doing this.
12:08So Harrison Bucker, I'm treating him like every other player on the field.
12:12And I'm not saying that I'm excited about rooting for Justin Tucker either. I think he's nasty. I've
12:16been calling him kick nasty on this show. I'm not interested in defending Justin Tucker, but at this
12:22point, I don't have any control over it. So may the best man win the job. And I find it
12:25hard to
12:26believe that the best situation they have in field goals is Harrison Bucker right now. I refuse to
12:31believe it based on what I've seen. The cap was never a problem for me. It would be so easy
12:36to move a few
12:36dollars around and go through four kickers. Just hold week by week tryouts. This isn't a
12:41situation like you mentioned with quarterbacks where there's only a finite number of them
12:45available. I don't care if it's from someone else's practice squad or, you know, that guy that kicked
12:49for the Colts with the glasses, the real small guy, Rodrigo Blankenship. He's out here on TikTok
12:54kicking, making kicks. I don't care who or where they pull it from. My, my analogy to the 0708 Memphis
13:01Tigers earlier still stands. They shot 61% from the free throw stripe in the regular season. You know,
13:06what they did in the championship game against KU, they shot 63% from, from the free throw
13:10line. It reared its ugly head. They lost the game. I don't care what Bucker did three,
13:15four years ago. He made a lot of good kicks, a lot of big kicks. Excuse me. He's 63%
13:20from
13:21the field right now, cumulatively over 50, under 50, whatever. There's a six out of 10 chance.
13:26The kick goes in. If it leaves his foot, are you comfortable with that in the playoffs?
13:29Knowing that he will miss 40% of his kicks, it simply can't happen. And I think the coaching
13:33staff is there too for Andy to lead the press conference today saying, I know it's bad,
13:38but we're still thinking about what to do about it. That, I mean, for a guy who stood by
13:42Butker all along, it's, I think the organization realized it yesterday as well. Text line 913-586-7965.
13:49Cedar, you are lying. If you're saying that you don't care about his beliefs, come on. I don't know how
13:54much more clear I can say this. I don't care. I'm not saying that I would hang out with Harrison
13:59Bucker or that I would want to be his friend or BFFs. No, we're fundamentally different on a lot
14:05of things. I disagree with Harrison Bucker on a lot of things that has nothing to do with his
14:10ability to kick field goals. I don't think that Harrison Bucker is problematic in the way that I
14:16think his beliefs are harming people. He's allowed to feel how he feels. Just like I'm allowed to disagree
14:21with how he feels and you're allowed to disagree with how he feels. I'm not saying that I would vote
14:26for Harrison Bucker for a political office. I don't think he's a good field goal kicker anymore.
14:31That's all I care about. That's all I can't say for anybody else. I don't care what Harrison
14:35Bucker believes. I really don't. I, who you vote for, who you hang, it does not have anything to do
14:40with me. I do not care. It does not in any capacity. He is two for eight on field goals
14:46over 50 yards.
14:47He's not good at it anymore. He's not good at it. So you have to be gone then if that's
14:53the case.
14:54I don't care. I do think there is a portion of the fan base though, that is okay with that.
14:59That
15:00is in favor of, excuse me, Harrison Bucker's beliefs, but they look at the practice squad
15:03and they see Deshaun Watson's BFF sitting there ready to take over if Bucker. So it's almost like,
15:08like you mentioned earlier, he's not committing crimes out here. And the other one is alleged to
15:12have done that. So it's, it's putting those fans in a weird spot. I think maybe morally.
15:16Yeah, for sure. And that's what I'm saying with Harrison Bucker, like we might fundamentally disagree
15:20on a lot of things, but he's allowed to feel that way. He's not harmful. Like Justin Tucker
15:25is a harmful individual. We have, we have people who have said, Justin Tucker did this to me. And I
15:32believe those people, that's not Harrison Bucker's issue. We just fundamentally disagree on life.
15:36That might mean that I don't want to go to dinner with Harrison Bucker. I ain't got no problem with
15:40him kicking field goals. Hey, you might, me and you might not hang out. I might not vote for who
15:45you
15:45vote for. Hell, if you can come hang my TV up, good. Come hang it up. I don't care. I'm
15:50just not
15:50going to talk to you about that when you were around. So I'm applying that same logic to Harrison
15:54Bucker. We don't got to hang out. We don't got to be BFFs. I wouldn't want to go get a
15:58beer with you.
15:59Can you get the job done? I'm sorry. That's all I, that's all I care about at this point.
16:04Let's go to the phone lines at Iowa three, five, eight, six, seven, nine, six, five. Let's go to Nick.
16:08Nick, how you doing, man? Hey, I'm doing good. Thanks for taking the call. Um, I just wanted to point
16:13out something that seems very obvious, but when you talk about big games, tight games where field
16:21position matters, the points are obviously a big thing with the field goals. But if you miss
16:27and you're giving them the ball back at that point, which I think is understated and how valuable a
16:34good kicker that's consistent might be. So thanks for your time. Yeah, for sure. I appreciate the phone
16:40ball. I mean, that's a massive, massive part of this. I mean, I think you saw that in the Broncos
16:44game. It's a different game, giving the Broncos the ball on the 20 or the 25 yard line, as opposed
16:50to essentially giving them all at midfield, like the Broncos offense is bad. It ain't that bad.
16:56It ain't that bad where if you give them a drive that starts the 50 yard line, they're not capable
17:02of scoring on that drive. And you're going to play offenses down this second half of the season
17:07that absolutely can capitalize on that. I mean, I think Atlanta is one of those teams that can
17:13capitalize on a miss like that. Buffalo certainly is. The Rams are one of those teams. Cincinnati is
17:18certainly one of those teams. Like they, he missed the field goal against one of the few teams that
17:22is not capable of taking advantage of those mistakes. Let's go back to the phone lines.
17:27913-586-7965. Nick, how you doing, man? I'm good, brother. How you doing?
17:32Doing good. Seat out, man. Hey, listen, it's your favorite 801 server. Listen, man,
17:40how disappointing. First of all, we got to talk about Mizzou, bro.
17:43I don't want to talk about them. Don't even, don't even bring them up. Please don't talk
17:46about them. I don't want to talk about them, bro. They just upset me. I don't want to bring
17:48it up.
17:50All right. We'll get back to Bucker then. Listen, I, you know, it's tough because, you know,
17:54I don't care about Bucker's beliefs. I really don't. I'm like you. I'd sit down and have
17:58a dinner with a guy and we're just not going to talk about it. But the fact that what is
18:03his
18:03percentage rate this year? 68% is what he's kicking. I think I heard somebody else on the
18:09radio go, if anybody else is kicking like this on any other team, he's gone. See you later. Have a
18:13good one, you know? And, but the sad thing is we're going from a guy who's pretty controversial
18:19in his beliefs to an even worse guy off the field issues. But like you said, if the guy can
18:25make field
18:25goals, put him in there, you know, I mean, it's not to me, like you said, it's not even about
18:30the
18:30money. Who cares? He's practically already been paid. Get the guy in there that can get the job
18:37done. That's the most important thing right now. Cause I guarantee you, we're going to lose at
18:41least two more games this year. And it's going to be the difference maker of whether or not we have
18:45a wild card spot or if we're going to be going in with at least the second seed. And it's
18:50good to
18:50talk to you, buddy. Good to see you. Hopefully I see you soon. Absolutely, man. I appreciate you as
18:54always, man. So yeah, the point about the money already being paid, this is where we're at.
18:58Harrison Bucker was guaranteed 17.75 million. So almost $18 million. If you are looking at the
19:03amount of money that has already been paid out, the chiefs have paid somewhere between 15 and 15
19:09and a half million dollars on Harrison Bucker. Now, if this was early in the deal, I mean,
19:14I think the conversation would just be put them on the IR. You got to try to salvage this contract
19:18in
19:18any way, but when you've already paid 80, 90% of the money, we're now arguing about trying to get
19:26the rest of the 10% of value left on Harrison Bucker. That conversation just over for me. So
19:32it cannot be the money to me anymore. That's why to me, it is just, it is imperative that they
19:38do
19:39something. They have only two options to me. I'm not even saying they got to outright release them,
19:44put them on the IR and give yourself a month of working with him behind the scenes to figure it
19:51out and try Justin Tucker or try another kicker and give them the opportunity. If Justin Tucker does
19:58the job for the next month, well then Harrison Bucker, he's the one on the practice squad. He's
20:03the one on the back burner waiting for an opportunity. If the Justin Tucker experiment flames out and let's
20:09not make it seem like it can't flame out. It absolutely can. He's a guy who also couldn't
20:14kick from distance. Then I'm, I'm happy to re-engage the Harrison Bucker conversation in a month from
20:19now. Happy to re-engage. Hey, he's got some time. Hey, we think we figured it out. He went to
20:24a sports
20:24psychiatrist. He did all of these things. We think we fixed it. All right, cool. Let's see if you
20:28actually get it right. But to Nick's point, I a hundred percent agree. I mean, this could be the
20:33difference in you being the two seed or being the six seed. This could be the difference in you hosting
20:37the AFC championship game and going on the road. That's how thin the margins are with what we're
20:42talking about. There's five teams in the AFC that are all jumbled up between Cincinnati, Kansas City,
20:48Buffalo, Denver, and Jacksonville. You got the worst field goal kicker of all of those. That might be
20:53the difference in you having to go on the road for three straight road games. That has put you at
20:58a
20:58significant disadvantage. Let's get back to the phone lines here. Zach wants to weigh in. Hey, Zach,
21:02how you doing, man? I'm doing good. I appreciate you taking the call. Yeah. I just want to quickly
21:07say, uh, I really appreciate you. Um, so I just recently retired from the military and I've been
21:13kind of finding my way and I know I want to kind of get involved with sports and I've really
21:17been
21:17looking to you kind of as like a case study almost and kind of the right way to go about
21:21that. So I
21:22want to put that out. You're doing awesome. I really appreciate it. I've really been appreciated
21:25studying you, but I think butt curds, I, I kicked, I was a kicker. I feel like I'm a little
21:31more qualified than some people. It's all mental. The leg swing doesn't change. It doesn't change
21:36for anybody. He's been doing the same swinging motion since he was 11 years old. It's all in
21:41his head. And when you lose it, it's hard to get that back. An analogy as gruesome as, or as
21:46weird
21:46as it is, is like if a partner cheats on you, yeah, you can get back together. You can, you
21:50know,
21:51enjoy your time. It'll always be in the back of your head. It is tough to get that
21:55mentality back as a kicker when you've lost it. Silly Zach. I appreciate the phone call.
21:59Thanks a lot for the compliment as well. I mean, that that's what I think it is right
22:02now too. I think it is. I think it is mental. I think he is a golfer that has tinkered
22:08with
22:08his swing a little bit. And now one thing is off. And just like somebody who was just
22:13now missing free throws. Now you're trying to shoot it too hard. Now you're trying to shoot
22:17a little bit to the right. Like it is all mental now at this point, I 100% believe. And
22:23that's
22:23why I think it's important to know, like you don't have to embarrass Harrison Bucker
22:27by just outright releasing him this week. You don't have to do that. Come up with an
22:31injury. Hey, we're putting them on IR. He tweaked something in his leg and we're going
22:35to get it right. That's it. Put them on IR. Someone on the text line asked this question.
22:40What if Tucker comes in and misses? Then you can get another kicker. I got just that. Then
22:45you can get somebody else. We think there's only two people walk in the face of the earth that
22:50are available to kick field goals for the chiefs too. No, then get another kicker, bring
22:55in somebody in for a workout. That's all. That's it. There's some things that God didn't
23:01make a lot of God didn't make a lot of capable quarterbacks. There aren't a whole bunch of
23:06like guys that can play left tackle that sit there. I there's more than 32 people walk in
23:10the face of the earth that can kick field goals in the national football league. There's
23:14more than 32. So this is a, this is a somewhat solvable problem. It is at least a problem.
23:20They can improve upon if they want to do the work we got.