By MATT PIKE
St. Joseph Post
As Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker worked on the field during Chiefs Training Camp in St. Joseph, behind the scenes he was busy negotiating a new deal.
That culminated today as the Chiefs announced Butker had signed a four-year extension with the team. The deal makes Butker the highest paid kicker in the league.
Butker says he's glad that he can help move the kicker market forward
"I think offense is definitely the strength of the NFL right now, there's a lot of points being scored and kickers are part of that, games are closer than ever," Butker tells reporters after practice. "(Justin) Tucker signed his contract two years ago and then Jake Elliot just signed and tied his, so I'm grateful to be able to move it up a little bit."
Butker's new deal will net him $6.4 million annually, while Justin Tucker and Jake Elliot are making just $6 million.
Most notably, Butker negotiated the new deal himself. Butker says it was a lot of fun.
"My personality I'm an introvert, I don't really like the attention, so even being an NFL kicker is kind of an odd thing for me, I don't like the loud noises, the attention that comes my way," Butker explains. "But when I'm in the moment and I'm executing the kick, I'm so grateful for that opportunity and I kind of negotiated this contract the same way."
"It would have been easy for me to have an agent handle the contract, but I kind of attacked this fear and I wanted to go out and have faith in myself to represent myself, and do something that not a lot of players do and it wasn't to difficult."
Butker says he actually used his background as an industrial engineer at Georgia Tech during the negotiations.
"I can handle the spreadsheets and making sure I'm doing the right job with the counter offers and such and getting to a good deal," Butker says. "But, it was a challenge that I took on and I felt like going on year eight I kind of understand the NFL well enough, I understand contracts well enough from being involved with the NFLPA, and obviously I have a great relationship with the front office here."
"And so, I was able to negotiate my own contract over 8 to 10 weeks and I'm really excited about it and I think it's empowering for players to know that no one's going to represent you better than you."
Chiefs prepared to show off new dynamic receivers in preseason game
The Chiefs wrapped up their final practice of the week in St. Joseph today and now turn their attention to the first preseason game on Saturday in Jacksonville.
One of the more exciting aspects of the first preseason game is seeing all the Chiefs new offensive weapons, like Hollywood Brown and Xavier Worthy, in action
Quarterback Patrick Mahomes says he's extremely excited to see these new weapons in game action.
"Obviously for me to go out there and play these guys and showcase what we have the ability to do, but to learn from our mistakes too," Mahomes tells reporters from the podium post-practice. "You're going to go out there and play for real and play against someone else, I'm tired of going against Spags (Defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo) and every defense known to man, and so I think just going out there, letting the guys play, make decisions under fire, and have them make those right decisions and learn from mistakes after."
Mahomes says with his new speedy receivers they'll obviously be able to hit guys over the top.
"But I think the biggest thing is you want to be able to do both, I think that's something we've worked on all camp is you're going to be able to hit the guys over the top and then when the defense plays deep you have to be able to hit the medium type things, and we have to be able to run the football," Mahomes explains.
"And that's what makes great offenses great, is having the ability to do all of that, and so as much as I want to throw it deep every single play, I think just being able to do everything is going to be the biggest part of our offense."
Head Coach Andy Reid says that during Saturday's game the ones will play the 1st quarter, two's the second and so on.
Kickoff from Jacksonville is at 6pm, the game can be heard on Q Country 92.7 with pregame at 5pm
