It’s easy to forget how awkward the initial Justin Tucker decision was.
John Harbaugh told me on the record at the 2012 NFL Scouting Combine in Indianapolis that the Ravens were NOT looking at the kickers. They had theirs. While the name “Billy Cundiff” is considered a curse word in this city, the truth is that outside of one particular kick, he was a pretty good kicker. In fact, he had been a first-team All-Pro just a year earlier (2010).
While I happened to know (and report at the time despite Harbaugh’s denial) that the Ravens were indeed scouting the kickers at the Combine, I also knew and reported that they were not committed to moving on from Cundiff. They wanted competition to help build Cundiff’s confidence back up for 2012. They believed he could still be the guy. They knew it was unlikely that they could trust a completely unproven kicker when they had an All-Pro-caliber kicker on the team who just happened to miss one, albeit very significant, kick.
That was an awkward summer. Justin Tucker was really talented. He had a hell of a leg. He had a track record of making big kicks in college. But he was unproven and the team had its sights set on winning the Super Bowl. NFL rosters aren’t built to be able to hold an apprentice kicker like they are with quarterbacks. If Cundiff were to be released, he’d be employed again quickly and wouldn’t be available if the Ravens realized weeks later they had made the wrong decision (as they felt they had with Steven Hauschka two years prior). If they put Tucker on the practice squad, he had probably shown too much throughout the summer and teams with kicking needs would be interested.
It was an incredibly awkward decision. Thankfully, it was a decision the Ravens got correct.
I have to remind myself that this was only 12 years ago because that’s part of what makes the current Justin Tucker conundrum so awkward. It would be quite easy to suggest that Tucker is “washed” or “past his prime” or something along those lines. But that doesn’t add up. There have been 24 occasions in which a kicker has made a Pro Bowl at the age of 34 or older. Four kickers older than Tucker — Nick Folk (Titans), Graham Gano (Giants), Matt Prater (Cardinals) and Greg Zuerlein (Jets) — are a combined 12-for-13 this year, including 2-for-2 from beyond 50 yards.
Perhaps we will look back and recognize that this moment was “the end” for Justin Tucker. But on paper, it’s not logical to explain away his struggles this season (5-for-8 overall, 0-for-2 beyond 50 yards) simply by noting his age.
Which doesn’t mean I have the specifically correct answer, either. I have theories. The greatest kicker in NFL history has seemed a bit off since the dissolution of the “Wolfpack.” Former long snapper Morgan Cox (who was let go after 2020) and former punter/holder Sam Koch (who retired a season later) had long been part of Tucker’s field goal operation. From 2016-2020, Tucker was 161-for-175 on his field goal attempts (93.1 percent). In the two seasons and three games since, he’s missed as many field goals (14) as he did in the entire five years prior. He’s gone 74-for-88 (84.1 percent) during that time, including his most recent miss against the Cowboys.
And yes, the context that makes this all the more troubling is that kickers have seemingly never been better. Through Sunday’s games, NFL kickers not named Justin Tucker are 165-for-186 this season, making 88.7 percent of their field goal attempts.
And Sunday’s miss is what brings us back to the wholly awkward nature of this conversation. It seems completely insane to suggest that the team should simply cut its likely future Hall of Fame kicker. Yes, he’s 1-for-7 from beyond 50 since the start of 2023, but he had been making the kicks you’d expect most kickers to make. He has at least still has the leg on the longer attempts. They just haven’t been on target. (If the kicks were consistently short, it would be easier to subscribe to the “washed” theory.) While making the two long kicks he missed in the Chiefs and Raiders games would certainly have been helpful (particularly in a three-point loss against the Raiders), it would probably be unfair to say that a missed 53-yard or 56-yard field goal specifically “cost” the team a game.
But against Dallas? His 46-yard miss would have made it a four-possession game in the fourth quarter and, for all intents and purposes, ended it. While it is not Tucker’s singular fault that things nearly came completely unglued from there, it’s hard to not seriously consider the impact of the miss on what became a nearly full-blown meltdown. It was particularly notable that the Ravens later eschewed a potential 57-yard INDOOR attempt, seemingly confirming their faith in their legendary kicker had wavered.
Tucker’s struggles are impacting the Ravens in tangible ways. And it’s left them in a very awkward situation. I continue to ask for opinions of people both inside and around the NFL and the only realistic answer I get continues to be some variation of “it’s Justin Tucker, you just have to let him work through it.”
And given that this is Justin Tucker we’re talking about, I feel like they’re probably right. As disastrous as his miss was on Sunday, it would be far more disastrous if the organization chose to part ways with Tucker because of his short-term struggles only to watch him catch on with another AFC team and become Justin Tucker again, helping to eliminate them in the postseason while he continues to count as dead space against its salary cap.
So yeah, ignoring it and hoping it gets better feels like the play. At least for now. But there is some serious graveyard whistling afoot. Because they began the season with two losses, the Ravens have a smaller margin for error. If Tucker’s struggles continue, that could cost them more games and potentially derail the season. There has to be a cutoff by which things turn around. And as long as the Ravens stay afloat, it probably has to come by the midway point of the season.
Justin Tucker has more than earned grace from this organization and this fan base. But this isn’t like when a closer implodes in baseball. The team can’t attempt to “reset” Tucker by using him only in blowouts for a few weeks. He’s either the kicker or he isn’t.
For now, he remains. And if I had to bet, I’d say the rest of the league is right. He’s simply too good at this to think it doesn’t get solved. But he’s also on a team that continues to remind us of exactly how imperfect it is. The Ravens have to make sure they have this right.
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