Welcome back to the Arrowhead Pride Mailbag! Each week, watch for your opportunity to submit your Kansas City Chiefs questions in The Feed, which is found on AP’s home page.
Ahead of a Monday night matchup between the Chiefs and the Jacksonville Jaguars — on the heels of a big Week 4 victory — let’s see what is on our readers’ minds.
Is it worthwhile bringing in competition at kicker, just in case Harrison Butker doesn’t improve? Maybe on the practice squad?
A couple of weeks ago, we explained how the remaining guaranteed money on Harrison Butker’s contract likely marries him to the Chiefs through the 2026 season. If the team added a kicker, it would probably be explained as Butker recovering from an injury and being placed on the Reserve/Injured list. I do not see Kansas City giving him an ultimatum to compete for his job this season or next.
Kickers are notoriously creatures of habit. With Butker, there are two things I wonder about.
One is whether the new motion he discussed during training camp — intended to prevent him from dropping to a knee during field goal attempts — is affecting his timing. I also wonder if the kickoff rule change that disincentivizes touchbacks has led to more practice time spent on kickoffs — at the expense of field goal repetitions.
But the most likely explanation for Butker’s perceived struggles is a larger sample of his normal regular-season variance. While he has never attempted more than 42 regular-season field goals in any year, Kansas City’s early difficulty in finishing drives has him on pace for 55 tries over 17 games. Butker has already attempted five field goals exceeding 50 yards; he has never tried more than nine in any of his previous eight seasons.
Butker converting only three of five attempts beyond 50 yards may seem concerning, but if he makes his next try, a 4-for-6 mark would match his career 66% accuracy from that distance. If there were a placekicker on the market who offered better than a 60% success rate beyond 50 yards, he would already be signed.
The point-after-touchdown (PAT) misses are frustrating — but entering the season, Butker had missed about six percent of his career PATs. While that number isn’t zero, it is low enough to have confidence in Butker. With one extra point miss occurring on a converted Brazilian soccer field — and the other after a 15-yard penalty — I am not sure it’s time to worry.
I am more concerned about the 40-yarder Butker badly missed during Week 3 in New York — but entering the season, he had actually missed almost 12% of his career kicks from 40–49 yards. While known for clutch postseason heroics, Butker has played through regular-season hiccups before — and has sometimes been only “very good” (rather than legendary) until January. We’re not far enough into the season to truly identify trends, but the best way for Kansas City to address kicking woes is to finish drives with touchdowns instead of field goals.
Brashard Smith’s running style in college was very efficient with subtle moves to miss tacklers. Could he get more downs as a running back, or will he primarily be used as a pass receiving specialist?
I was encouraged to see Smith’s role increase in Week 4. After playing 21 offensive snaps through the first three weeks, he was on the field for 19 against Baltimore. He seemed confident on his seven touches — and his best run of the day, for 12 yards, was actually negated by a penalty.
Smith is an intriguing talent, but it will probably be next season before we really know what kind of player he is going to be. I expect his change-of-pace role to grow. I am also excited by the gadget plays that can be designed for him — especially once Kansas City has its full allotment of wide receivers available.
The Chiefs have not yet given him Smith any pass-blocking responsibilities. Whether he develops that skill will determine his ultimate ceiling. I also wonder if Kansas City will encourage him to add weight to his 196-pound frame during his first full offseason with the team.
I may be nit-picking here, but can Patrick Mahomes either improve his accuracy when throwing deep balls — trusting his receivers to get them — or stop throwing them altogether? Kind of tired of hearing (or seeing) him overthrow what should be a catchable ball that could lead to a huge gain down the field — or a big score.
Mahomes is actually trending up as a deep passer. He sits at 5.6 completed-air-yards-per-completion. That’s his highest rate since 2020. When Xavier Worthy returned on Sunday, we saw signs of his deep-ball connection with Mahomes. The quarterback should continue to have plenty of chances to shine with Tyquan Thornton, too.
It’s obvious that early in his career, Mahomes’ deep passing stats benefited from having Tyreek Hill in his prime. Many fast receivers have entered the league since “the Cheetah” surfaced in 2016, but I think Hill’s ability to track deep balls — and catch passes on the run without slowing down significantly — puts him in a class of his own. So it’s possible for Mahomes’ deep throws to improve over what we’ve seen in the past two seasons and still not rise to what we saw during his early years. He may never again play with a wideout who possesses Hill’s unique combination of skills.
There’s another issue with deep shots, too. As more football is consumed via products like “NFL Red Zone,” it’s easy for us to imagine that other teams are delivering highlight after highlight — but while watching our own favorite teams, we take in the full 60 minutes of ups and downs.
@BEMcculloch asks (via X):
I know getting Worthy back is a big deal, but where has that team been for the first three games?
I try to avoid overreacting — good or bad — so I will preface this by noting that Baltimore being down to a second-quarter preseason-caliber defensive line certainly aided Kansas City’s success.
That said, it also looked like the best elements of the offense finally came together.
In three straight games, the defense has executed excellent game plans — and I think Week 1 can be chalked up to inconvenient international travel and an unscouted look from a strong Los Angeles Chargers squad.
On offense, Kansas City finally showed signs of life coming out of the half against the New York Giants in Week 3. So over the last six quarters, the Chiefs have gained 563 total yards and scored 50 points.
We’ll need to see if it continues, but even during the frustrating 1-2 start, the team had been showing flashes of what it brought on Sunday. With Rashee Rice three weeks away from his 2025 debut, things could get even better.
Thank you for reading this week’s Arrowhead Pride Mailbag! Keep watching The Feed for a chance to ask your questions.