Ravens Prepared to Draft Justin Tucker Replacement

The Baltimore Ravens have maintained and reiterated the same stance as it pertains to seven-time Pro Bowl kicker Justin Tucker's ongoing off-the-field situation and letting the NFL's investigation play out before taking any action regarding his future with the team.

From pure football and business standpoints, the five-time First Team All Pro selection is coming off of the absolute worst season of his career. He missed a career-high 10 kicks between field goals and extra points including going 6-of-11 on attempts of 50-plus yards.

Regardless of whether these allegations came to light or not, the Ravens were going to be scouting kickers in the upcoming NFL Draft more seriously than they have in the past. For years, they were just trying to find comparable training camp legs to take some of the onus off of Tucker in practices and preseason games but now finding his potential immediate replacement has become a high priority.

Ravens senior special teams coach Randy Brown has been traveling all over the country scouting draft-eligible placekickers and according to head coach John Harbaugh, he believes there are "a lot of good" prospects at the position in this year's class.

"We'll look at those guys next week when we get back," Harbaugh said Monday at the annual league meetings. "Obviously, there are a lot of layers to that whole conversation, but it's something we would have to do no matter what."

While Tucker has been the gold standard at the position for the majority of his 13 years in the league, he is 35 years old, coming off the worst season of his career and is tied with the Philadelphia Eagles Jake Elliott as the second highest-paid kicker in the league with an average annual salary of $6 million. The fact of the matter is that his decline went from subtle the prior season to precipitous last year and the team's looking toward the future is understandably and completely warranted.

With another mega-extension for quarterback Lamar Jackson and other young franchise cornerstones such as Pro Bowers Tyler Linderbaum and Kyle Hamilton on the horizon, finding savings wherever they can continue to be an imperative part of the team-building process.

"At this point in time, you have to look," Harbaugh said. "You always have to do your due diligence, so we will be prepared to do that on Draft day if we feel like we need to and if the right guy is there."

The Ravens have 11 total picks this year, eight coming on Day 3 and six between rounds 5-7, where they will most likely look to add Tucker's potential successor. Some prospects at the position to monitor include Florida State's Ryan Fitzgerald, who made 100% of his attempts in 2024, including five from 50-plus yards out with a long of 59, Miami's Andres Borregales, Texas Tech's Gino Garcia and Ole Miss' Caden Davis.