John Harbaugh Gets Honest About Ravens Kicker Situation

Tucker could potentially face discipline from the league at some point depending on the findings of the investigation. There's also the fact that he is coming off the worst season of his career by far in which he missed a career-high 10 kicks that included some vital misses in tight losses. With all that in mind, the Ravens got proactive this offseason to come up with a contingency and potential succession plan at kicker.

Not only did they work out several of the top prospects at the position during the pre-draft process but for the first time in franchise history, they used a draft pick to select one by taking Arizona's Tyler Loop at No. 186 overall in the sixth round of the 2025 NFL Draft last weekend. The big-legged and self-proclaimed kicking nerd took the field for the first time as a Raven on Sunday and had a strong showing.

"It was good to see it. It was good to hear it," Harbaugh said. "I think as much as anything, it's good to hear a kicker, and the way the ball comes off his foot is impressive."

In 2024, Loop showcased his strong leg and accuracy from long distance for the Wildcats, going 6-of-9 from 50-plus yards including a career-long 62-yarder that he nailed with room to spare. Meanwhile, Tucker has been unreliable from 50 or more yards over the past few seasons, going 6-of-10 last year and 1-of-5 in 2023.

Tucker has been around the team facility the past couple of weeks prior to and since Loop was drafted putting work in on his body and his craft. All signs are pointing to an inevitable and honest competition between the franchise legend who still holds the mantle of most accurate kicker of all time and the promising young rookie who could be molded into the next great specialist for the next decade-plus.

"Every decision we make has to be based on football," Harbaugh said. "There's a lot of layers to that. You've got a rookie kicker in here. We took him in the sixth round, early in the sixth round. He's a talented guy. Just from a football standpoint, salary cap, all the different things that you just take into consideration – whatever we decide to do over the next few weeks would be based on football."

The fact that Harbaugh used the terms "next few weeks" unprompted might suggest that the Ravens could be exploring to move on from Tucker before training camp even gets underway. Either way, it's beginning to look more and more like the future Hall of Famer's era days in Baltimore are numbered.