After a decade with Harrison Butker, the Kansas City Chiefs are prepared to turn the page at kicker. Kansas City signed seven-time Pro Bowler Justin Tucker to its practice squad Wednesday, intensifying the pressure on a struggling Butker.
Butker has missed five field goals and an extra point this season. His 68.8 field goal percentage is tied for 28th in the NFL and he’s missed four of his six attempts from 50+. It’s been nowhere near good enough for a team still working through some offensive kinks in Patrick Mahomes’ first season back from a major knee injury.
Tucker, 36, hasn’t kicked since the worst season of his career with the Baltimore Ravens in 2024. Shortly after the year, he faced sexual misconduct accusations from 16 massage therapists and the Ravens cut him. Tucker served a 10-game suspension in 2025 for violating the NFL’s personal conduct policy, though he wasn’t on an active roster.
While Tucker is just on the practice squad for now, he could certainly make his way onto the 53-man roster soon. Here’s where that could mean for Butker.
Will the Chiefs cut Harrison Butker?
It’d be quite an expensive pivot. Butker is signed through 2028 and carries a dead cap value of $10.1 million. It’d cost the Chiefs $2.8 million in dead cap to cut Butker before June 1 of the 2027 offseason, however, and only $1.4 million if he was a post-June 1 designation. So, the Chiefs are incentivized to make it work with Butker, at least for the rest of this season, but his struggles may result in Kansas City paying up and turning to Tucker anyway.
This article originally appeared on For The Win: Will Chiefs cut Harrison Butker after Justin Tucker signing?
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