Ravens rookie kicker Tyler Loop hasn’t faced the pressure of a last-second NFL kick with the game on the line yet, but the heat was turned up just a little bit at the team’s OTA workout on June 11. As Loop got set to handle field goals during a portion of practice, Ravens owner Steve Bisciotti stood a few yards behind him.
Loop proceeded to make five of nine field goals during the period, including a long of about 56 yards, but he missed three in a row, all from 50-plus yards. (The distances were hard to confirm from the vantage point of the media viewing area.)
Loop, a sixth-round draft pick from Arizona, and John Hoyland, an undrafted rookie from Wyoming, are involved in something the Ravens haven’t dealt with in more than a decade: an open competition for the kicking job. That follows the tumultuous, stunning end to Justin Tucker’s Ravens career amid an NFL investigation into alleged sexual misconduct.
Tucker, who signed with the Ravens as an undrafted rookie in 2012 and was the longest-tenured player on the team, was released by the Ravens in early May, removing any distraction as the two rookies try to win the job. (The NFL investigation into Tucker remains ongoing.)
During the OTA practices, the Ravens usually alternated day by day, with one kicker taking the live field-goal reps one day, and the other getting his shot the next day. Both have exhibited the kind of leg strength that led the team to sign them in the first place, but this job is Loop’s to lose.
Leading up to the draft, Loop was the clear personal choice of kicking coach Randy Brown, who scoured the country looking at draftable kickers and told general manager Eric DeCosta that Loop was the one he coveted.
DeCosta then proceeded to select Loop in the sixth round, making him the first kicker ever drafted by the team.
Brown couldn’t have been thrilled to see his handpicked choice miss three in a row under the watchful eye of the team owner, but overall, the Ravens have been pleased with Loop in the early going. Harbaugh said after the draft that he was impressed with the consistency of Loop’s mechanics and technique, calling him “a kicking nerd, and you like to see that.”
Loop comes to Baltimore after a decorated career at Arizona. He made 83 percent of his field-goal attempts for the Wildcats (67 of 80), including a 62-yarder, the longest in school history. He was thought to have the strongest leg of any kicker in this year’s draft class, and he’s flashed that this spring. At one workout last week, Loop was perfect on his kicks and launched a 60-yarder that was good with plenty of room to spare.
Hoyland made 73 of 92 field goals (79.3 percent) in five years at Wyoming. He was 15-for-19 in 2024, including 1-for-4 from outside 50 yards. Hoyland has hit a career-long of 56 yards.
During one OTA workout, the Ravens simulated last-second situations in which they could run one play before hustling the kicking team onto the field for a potentially game-winning kick. Hoyland missed three in a row, from 61, 51 and 49 yards. Derrick Henry was among the teammates that offered the rookie some encouragement, and Hoyland then hit his last three, from 42, 39 and 46 yards.
A few days later, in a similar drill, Hoyland went 6-for-6, with a long of 52. Five of his six kicks came from beyond 45 yards.
Loop would probably have to stumble badly through the summer and preseason games for the Ravens to offer the kicking job to anyone other than the first kicker they’ve drafted, but Harbaugh will surely welcome a competition in which each kicker knows he must perform to win the job. The Ravens could also tap the free-agent marketplace for a veteran, but for now, they seem content with letting their two rookies duke it out for the daunting job of replacing the most accomplished kicker in Ravens history.
Loop and Hoyland will be back on the practice field next week for the Ravens’ mandatory minicamp June 17-18 before the team breaks for a month before training camp.
Photo Credit: Mike Christy/Arizona Athletics