Longtime NFL pundit Peter King: Harrison Butker is 'definitely a worry for the Chiefs'

Pete Grathoff, The Kansas City Star on Oct 15, 2025

Published in Football

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KANSAS CITY, Mo. — For fans of football journalism, there has been a void since Peter King retired shortly after the Chiefs won Super Bowl LVIII.

King had written his “Football Morning in America” for NBC Sports for six years. Before that, King worked for Sports Illustrated for 29 years, authored five books and was a longtime Pro Football Hall of Fame voter.

While no longer writing about football, King still comments on the NFL. He is a frequent guest on podcasts, and he co-hosts the SiriusXM show “Let’s Go!” with Maxx Crosby and Jim Gray.

On the latest episode of that show, King expressed a couple of concerns about the Chiefs. First was the number of dropped passes by Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce.

But King spent most of his time talking about kicker Harrison Butker, who has had an issue in each Chiefs game this season.

— Week 1: Missed an extra point against the Chargers

— Week 2: Missed a field goal against the Eagles

— Week 3: Missed a field goal and extra point against the Giants

— Week 4: Missed a field goal against Baltimore

— Week 5: Had a kickoff go out of bounds late in loss to Jaguars

— Week 6: Missed an extra point against the Lions

“Harrison Butker, highest paid kicker in football, and you don’t pay a guy 6.4 million (dollars) a year to miss three PATs in the first six weeks and to miss three field goals,” King said. “The last two seasons, Harrison Butker made 121 kicks, PATs and field goals, and only missed eight.

“Well, after six weeks, he’s already missed six this year. So we’ll see if he’s Steve Sax or Chuck Knoblauch. We’ll see.”

Sports fans of a certain age will remember Sax and Knoblauch were Major League Baseball second basemen who both suffered from a case of the “yips,” where they struggled to make a simple throw to first.

King said the three missed extra-point attempts by Butker are most troubling.

“I don’t know. I’m not a special teams coach. I don’t know why he’s missing,” King said. “Who misses PATs? This is an era where kickers make most of their kicks in the 50s. So if you miss the equivalent of a 33-yard field goal three times in six weeks, there’s something wrong. But we’ll see. They’re obviously not going to cut him now, he’s going to get his chance to work out of it. But early on, Harrison Butker, I would say, is definitely a worry for the Chiefs.”