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Jamison Hensley, ESPN writer
OWINGS MILLS, Md. — For a dozen seasons, Justin Tucker raised the bar for NFL kickers, whether it was accuracy, long-distance field goals or clutch kicks. Now he is struggling to meet the high standards he set.
Tucker’s two missed field goals weighed heavily in the Baltimore Ravens’ 18-16 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday, which extended one of the worst skids of his career and removed him from being the most accurate kicker in the game. NFL history.
On Monday, Ravens coach John Harbaugh said there are no plans to compete for Tucker.
“The best option right now is for Justin to get back to fitness because he’s completely capable of doing that,” Harbaugh said. “We certainly haven’t lost confidence in Justin Tucker.”
Tucker, a seven-time Pro Bowl kicker, missed from 47 and 50 yards Sunday before kicking a 54-yard field goal. His conversion rate for this season has fallen to 72.7%, which is his lowest ever in 11 games in a season.
His six failures are one more than he totaled in all of last season, and he is one away from tying the worst result of his career. He failed on seven attempts in 2015, when he was 33 of 40.
“He’ll get it figured out,” Harbaugh said. “We have coaches, we have technique. We watch the tape and he is practicing well. He has to kick straight.”
Tucker has missed five field goals in Baltimore’s four losses this season. He failed to make a 56-yard field goal in a three-point loss to the Las Vegas Raiders (26-23) in Week 2, and then missed on two attempts in a two-point loss to the Steelers on Sunday.
On Sunday, Tucker missed multiple kicks for the sixth time in 206 career games, putting him in an unfamiliar spot. In one of the rare occasions in the last eight years, Tucker is not the most accurate among kickers with at least 100 attempts. His career success rate of 89.3% (411 of 460) ranks behind the Carolina Panthers’ Eddy Piñeiro’s 89.4% (101 of 113).
“I’m still confident that I’m going to go out there and nail every kick,” Tucker said after Sunday’s game. “Part of the way we maintain trust is by continuing to work and trusting the process. It may sound like a broken record, but it’s part of what brings us success: simply trusting the process and then taking a step forward. time.”
Tucker will turn 35 on Thursday, but the Ravens don’t believe age is an issue. None of Tucker’s misses (from 53, 56, 46, 50, 47 and 50 yards) have fallen short. They have all been from the broad left.
Tucker’s drop in consistency has coincided with a change in starters. When punter Sam Koch was Tucker’s starter from 2012 to 2022, Tucker made 90.5% of his field goals (363 of 401). Former Baltimore special teams coordinator Jerry Rosburg called Koch “the greatest starter in the history of football.”
Koch retired after the Ravens selected punter Jordan Stout in the fourth round of the 2023 draft and is currently the assistant special teams coach. With Stout as the starter the last two seasons, Tucker has converted 81.4% of his attempts (48 of 59).
Harbaugh said Monday that the holding and setup mechanics of the kick “have not specifically impacted” the misses.
“They work together,” Harbaugh said. “I think when things go well, Justin gives a lot of credit to those guys. I think they all take responsibility for everything that’s good and everything that doesn’t go well.”
Tucker still holds the record for the longest field goal in NFL history, when he kicked a 66-yard game-winning goal in Detroit three years ago. He is also 28 of 31 in the final two minutes of regulation and a perfect 6 of 6 in overtime.
After Sunday’s game, Steelers kicker Chris Boswell called Tucker “a legend” and “a future Hall of Famer.”
