The task of finding a successor to future Hall of Fame kicker Justin Tucker, who is widely acknowledged as the best player at the position in NFL history, is a daunting task. But there's arguably nobody more qualified or up to the task than Baltimore Ravens senior special teams coach Randy Brown.
"He knows what he's looking for [and] he knows how to teach it," head coach John Harbaugh said. "The fundamentals that he teaches – he taught me the fundamentals of kicking, way back in Philly in the early 2000s. I learned from him about the kicking technique. So, I think it's very sound and he's been proven. He's brought the best out in kickers here. All the kickers that have come through the system here – even when they didn't become the kicker here, they became the kicker somewhe re else. It kind of shows you how good he is at what he does."
Harbaugh shared that Brown is a former aspiring professional kicker who once took part in a camp with the Green Bay Packers four decades ago. After not making it into the pros, he got into coaching and has a gifted eye for talent at the position, and is even better at developing it. In addition to Tucker, he has helped discover and cultivate several of the best kickers in the league, both past and present. The list includes the likes of Matt Stover, Stephen Hauschka, Billy Cundiff, Graham Gano of the New York, Wil Lutz of the Denver Broncos and Cameron Dicker of the Los Angeles Chargers.
With Tucker coming off the worst year of his career and faced with multiple allegations of sexual misconduct, Brown was commissioned to conduct the search to find his potential replacement. After casting a wide net that spanned from coast to coast, he set his sights on a strong-legged prospect from Lucas, Texas, who played collegiately at the University of Arizona.
At No. 186 overall in the sixth round of the 2025 NFL Draft back in late April, rookie Tyler Loop became the first-ever kicker drafted in the 30-year history of the franchise. However, he sold himself to his position coach well before that during a dinner that lasted two and a half hours at a restaurant that featured a Pepsi fountain and left Brown convinced that he had what it takes to be the heir apparent to a legend.
"He explained to me his process," Brown said. "It was intricate to the point of – I'll explain it to you guys who are here and fans who are watching at home. There's a spot on your foot where you have to kick the football. There's a spot on your foot. He knew exactly where that spot was on your foot, and you do it by which lace you want to hit the football on."
Brown's line of detailed questioning included the following: "What is that process? The process is how am I going to make sure that that spot on my foot hits one inch below the middle of the football, which is our sweet spot depending on the different size of the football? Now, I can go into more of a process of when you're out there, 'OK, where's my target? How far back do I go? How many inches away from the football am I?"
After getting a visual reenactment of Loop's process and approach to kicking, where the two of them moved a couple of tables away in the Tucson restaurant where they were meeting, the former Arizona Wildcat went over such granular details such as his target and lean on the ball, he text Harbaugh: "I think we have our guy."
At the 2025 NFL Scouting Combine, Brown got another chance to observe Loop's process during the on-field workouts for the specialists that he got to organize and facilitate, and was impressed once again. What began with a wide pool of 30 kickers between aspiring NFL hopefuls in the college ranks and veteran free agents was narrowed down to 10 and then further whittled down until Loop was his top choice. After he was declared the starting kicker with another week left to go in the preseason, after standout performances in the first two, he clearly chose wisely.
"When it was all said and done – it came down to Tyler," Brown said. "I made three West Coast trips back and forth. Occasionally, I texted John [Harbaugh] to tell him where I was at. Most of the time, he texted me back, [and] he's like, 'Oh great, I didn't care. We weren't in the office today.' So, it was good. But that's how the process started – it was just evaluating and seeing who fits our criteria."
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