The Kansas City Chiefs recently signed third-year kicker, Harrison Butker, to a five-year contract extension.
Butker’s total contract makes him one of the highest-paid kickers in the league and locks him to the Chiefs through the 2024 season. This provides some Long-term stability at the position for the Chiefs that it hasn’t recently seen. The team has rostered three kickers during Andy Reid’s tenure as head coach: Ryan Succop, Cairo Santos and most recently Butker.
Here’s a look at the extension base salary, signing bonus and cap numbers courtesy of Spotrac:
| Year | Base Salary | Signing Bonus | Cap | Dead Cap |
| 2019 | $645,000 | $700,000 | $1,450,000 | $6,490,000 |
| 2020 | $2,345,000 | $700,000 | $3,195,000 | $5,145,000 |
| 2021 | $3,090,000 | $700,000 | $3,940,000 | $2,100,000 |
| 2022 | $3,350,000 | $700,000 | $4,200,000 | $1,400,000 |
| 2023 | $3,550,000 | $700,000 | $4,400,000 | $700,000 |
| 2024 | $3,690,000 | – | $3,840,000 | – |
Starting in 2020, Butker receives $50,000 in workout bonuses and $100,000 in roster bonuses yearly through 2024.
The structure of this deal works out nicely for the Chiefs. Each consecutive season sees the dead cap number go down, with 2024 culminating in a season where the Chiefs can get out of the contract. In 2024 there is no dead money attached to the deal and the Chiefs can walk away with $3.84 million in cap savings. If Butker’s play starts to decline at any point 2021, the Chiefs could move on from Butker with minimal dead money.
Butker’s deal has the top dollar amount in the NFL over the course of the contract, but he doesn’t enter the top 10 in the league in terms of cap dollars until the 2021 season. Overall this contract is rewarding for Butker and affordable for the Chiefs with several out points throughout the course of the deal.
Butker saw a big decline in field goal attempts, but a sharp increase in extra points in 2018, with Patrick Mahomes throwing for 50 touchdowns. Moving forward accuracy and consistency will be a big emphasis for Butker if he seeks to remain in Kansas City for the length of the deal.
