Quarterback Shedeur Sanders’ epic freefall to the fifth round was the national story of Day 3 of the NFL Draft, but for the Ravens, the headline occurred in the sixth round, when the Ravens selected Arizona kicker Tyler Loop. It marked the first time in franchise history that the Ravens have drafted a kicker, and it suggests the team is planning for life after Justin Tucker much more concretely than anyone would have imagined nine months ago.
The selection of Loop was one of eight picks the Ravens made on the final day of the draft as they rounded out an 11-member class that began with the selection of Georgia safety Malaki Starks in the first round, then Marshall edge rusher Mike Green and LSU offensive tackle Emery Jones in the second.
The Ravens on those first two days addressed two of their most pressing needs — safety and edge rush — and then backfilled an already strong roster with what general manager Eric DeCosta hopes will be value picks on Day 3.
Three of their first four picks overall were on defense; their first pick on the final day, in the fourth round, was Cal inside linebacker Teddye Buchanan.
“I think the guys we took can really impact the defense for sure,” DeCosta said.
The Ravens made two minor trades during the draft — tight end Mark Andrews did not go anywhere despite trade speculation leading up to the draft — and ultimately ended up with six of their 11 picks in the final two rounds.
In one deal, with the New York Jets, the Ravens moved back 10 spots this year and exchanged a 2026 sixth-rounder for a 2026 fifth-rounder.
The Ravens fortified the trenches in this draft, selecting three offensive linemen and one defensive lineman in sixth-rounder Aeneas Peebles from Virginia Tech, though DeCosta said the Ravens missed out a few times on a run-stuffing nose tackle to replace Michael Pierce, who retired after the season. DeCosta said they will look to find such a player via free agency.
The Ravens didn’t use an early pick on a plug-and-play left guard, the one opening in the starting lineup on offense. But in addition to drafting Jones in the third round, a tackle whom head coach John Harbaugh said would get a look at guard, the Ravens on the final day of the draft selected offensive tackle project Carson Vinson from Alabama A&M in the fifth round and then LSU guard Garrett Dellinger with their final pick of the day.
As DeCosta predicted, the team came away with another cornerback — two in fact — selecting Bilhal Kone from Western Michigan in the fourth round and then Robert Longerbeam from Rutgers in the sixth.
They also drafted Colorado wide receiver LaJohntay Wester, and DeCosta said he expects him to compete right away for a return specialist job that is wide-open after pedestrian results in 2024.
“We think he’s a twitchy, explosive punt returner,” DeCosta said. “I think last year it became evident that we could probably get better there at that position. I feel like last year, probably, I didn’t do a good enough job making sure that we had a good punt returner on the team. … We think Wester has a chance to really come in here and be an impact punt returner for us.”
Tucker’s future remains cloudy
The biggest impact player on Day 3, though, is probably Loop, whom DeCosta said was the one kicker in this draft class coveted by Ravens kicking specialist Randy Brown.
DeCosta wouldn’t commit to whether Loop or Tucker would be the team’s kicker this fall, saying only, “right now, they’re both on the roster, and there’s a situation for us where we’re just trying to find the best football players.”
DeCosta said he has no sense of the timeline of the league’s investigation into Tucker, who has been accused of sexual misconduct by more than a dozen Baltimore-area massage therapists according to a series of stories published by the Baltimore Banner not long after the 2024 season ended. Tucker has denied the wrongdoing via statements on social media, and the team has thus far deferred to the ongoing NFL investigation.
Tucker remains on the team’s roster, and Harbaugh said he was in the team facility last week working out. The team began its offseason program this past week and will hold voluntary OTA workouts beginning in May.
Harbaugh said he has had conversations with Tucker, who was aware there was a good chance the team would draft a kicker.
Tucker’s departure would be a stunning and abrupt end after 13 seasons with the team during which he developed into one of the best kickers in league history. He remains the most accurate field-goal kicker in NFL history, making 89.1 percent of his kicks, and his 66-yarder against Detroit in 2021 remains the longest field goal of all time. He also holds nearly every significant Ravens kicking record.
But during the 2004 season Tucker endured the worst slump of his career. He finished 22-for-30 on field goals (a career low 73.3 percent), and against Philadelphia he missed three kicks (two field-goal attempts and an extra point) for the first time in his career.
After the season — and before the allegations surfaced — DeCosta had said he expected Tucker to return to the team and predicted that he’d have a bounce-back season in 2025. But the allegations have cast his future with the team in doubt. Tucker is under contract with the team through 2027 after signing a four-year extension in 2022.
The Ravens often sign a second kicker for training camp, and in past years that player has known he was essentially auditioning for other teams while also giving Tucker some much-needed rest. This year, Loop will be in camp with a chance to win the job, something Tucker did as a rookie in 2012.
If the NFL at the end of its investigation hands down a suspension to Tucker, it would take effect with the regular season, so the Ravens would need a replacement beginning with Week 1 of the regular season anyway. If the investigation clears Tucker, then the team would need to make a decision as to whether to keep Tucker or Loop on the 53-man roster. The Ravens could also make the decision to move on from Tucker regardless, a decision that would have seemed inconceivable a year ago.
Asked about Tucker’s roster status in the wake of drafting Loop, DeCosta said, “I haven’t really thought about that at this point. I just thought [Loop] was a really talented player, and it made sense for us to do that for a lot of different reasons.”
Here’s a complete list of the Ravens 2025 draft class:
2025 RAVENS DRAFT CLASS
Round 1 (No. 27) — S Malaki Starks, Georgia
Round 2 (No. 59) — OLB Mike Green, Marshall
Round 3 (No. 91) — T Emery Jones, LSU
Round 4 (No. 129) — ILB Teddye Buchanan, California
Round 5 (No. 141) — T Carson Vinson, Alabama A&M
Round 6 (No. 178) — CB Bilhal Kone, Western Michigan
Round 6 (No. 186) — K Tyler Loop, Arizona
Round 6 (No. 203) — WR LaJohntay Wester, Colorado
Round 6 (No. 210) — DT Aeneas Peebles, Virginia Tech
Round 6 (No. 212) — CB Robert Longerbeam, Rutgers
Round 7 (No. 243) — G Garrett Dellinger, LSU
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