The Ravens have released Justin Tucker, and I don’t think we’ll be seeing him again. I don’t think he’s good enough to be worth the headaches that would come with signing him.
I suppose it’s possible. Ray Lewis, Jamal Lewis, Michael Vick, Donte Stallworth and Kareem Hunt got back into league after off-field incidents that seemed like career-enders.
Deshaun Watson faced a barrage of allegations from massage therapists even larger in scope to what’s been lodged against Tucker in recent months. Watson not only returned to the league, he had four teams bidding to trade for him and give him a massive contract.
So maybe.
Massage therapists from eight different studios have accused Tucker of acting inappropriately during sessions.
But when it comes down to being paid to play football, the difference is the quality of the player. Watson at that time was considered perhaps one of the top half-dozen quarterbacks in the league. Tucker, on the other hand, nowadays is looking like a kicker who’s average at best.
Tucker in the not-too-distant past was considered the best kicker in the history of the game – the all-time accuracy leader and the owner of the longest kick in league history. He looked like a guy who’d be getting welcomed into Baltimore’s ring of honor.
But Tucker hasn’t played at that level for a few years. He was average in the 2022-23 seasons, making only 86 percent of his field goals (86 percent used to be very good, but the bar has risen in recent years). And he struggled last year, making only 22 of 30 field goals (73 percent).
He’s 35. With there being a glut of good kickers right now, I don’t see any team taking on unnecessary distractions. The juice isn’t worth the squeeze.
Baltimore positioned itself to move on by selecting Arizona’s Tyler Loop in the sixth round.
In the chart below, the kickers in the 2016-2021 time period are those with at least 100 attempts. For the last three years, it’s kickers with at least 59 attempts (I started with 60, but had to toss in Jake Moody to have an equal number in each column).
| FIELD GOAL ACCURACY | |
|---|---|
| 2016-2021 | 2022-2024 |
| 93.3% Justin Tucker | 93.8% Cameron Dicker |
| 90.1% Harrison Butker | 92.1% Nick Folk |
| 90.0% Younghoe Koo | 91.0% Ka'imi Fairbairn |
| 89.2% Graham Gano | 89.8% Chase McLaughlin |
| 88.8% Robbie Gould | 89.5% Cairo Santos |
| 88.6% Josh Lambo | 89.4% Brandon Aubrey |
| 87.9% Chris Boswell | 88.8% Eddy Pineiro |
| 87.3% Matt Bryant | 87.8% Daniel Carlson |
| 87.2% Daniel Carlson | 87.5% Matt Prater |
| 86.5% Wil Lutz | 87.3% Chris Boswell |
| 86.5% Nick Folk | 87.1% Jason Myers |
| 85.0% Randy Bullock | 86.1% Jason Sanders |
| 84.6% Greg Zuerlein | 85.7% Jake Elliott |
| 84.4% Cairo Santos | 85.7% Harrison Butker |
| 84.3% Jason Myers | 85.1% Matt Gay |
| 84.2% Jake Elliott | 84.8% Wil Lutz |
| 84.0% Ryan Succop | 84.2% Tyler Bass |
| 84.0% Stephen Gostkowski | 83.8% Blake Grupe |
| 83.8% Dustin Hopkins | 83.3% Riley Patterson |
| 83.8% Ka'imi Fairbairn | 82.9% Brandon McManus |
| 83.7% Mason Crosby | 82.7% Justin Tucker |
| 83.4% Matt Prater | 82.4% Younghoe Koo |
| 83.4% Cody Parkey | 82.2% Greg Zuerlein |
| 83.3% Jason Sanders | 82.1% Dustin Hopkins |
| 82.8% Stephen Hauschka | 81.6% Graham Gano |
| 82.1% Brandon McManus | 80.4% Evan McPherson |
| 82.0% Adam Vinatieri | 80.4% Joey Slye |
| 80.5% Zane Gonzalez | 79.5% Greg Joseph |
| 80.1% Dan Bailey | 76.3% Jake Moody |
—Ian Allan