Amid an 0-2 start that has raised concerns up and down the roster, the Baltimore Ravens are likely facing an uncomfortable debate: whether kicker Justin Tucker is as reliable as he once was.
Tucker is one of the best kickers of all-time, entering the season with a league-best 90.2% career accuracy on field goals. However, the 34-year-old Pro Bowlers has struggled on deep field goals lately.
Dating back to last season, Tucker has now missed six of his last seven attempts from 50-plus yards.
Tucker has missed both of his attempts from 50-plus yards this season: a 53-yard attempt in Week 1 against the Kansas City Chiefs and a 56-yard attempt against the Las Vegas Raiders in Week 2.
Justin Tucker goes wide left from 56 yards. He's now just 1 of 7 (14.3%) on kicks from 50 yards or longer dating back to the start of the 2023 season #Ravens pic.twitter.com/SHuO5RYjcn
— John Breech (@johnbreech) September 15, 2024
Those misses have obviously hurt the Ravens, especially in Week 2, when they lost to the Raiders by three points in an ugly collapse.
After the game, Tucker acknowledged that the miss cost his team.
"I just misfired on the one from 56 [yards]," Tucker said, (via the Ravens' team website). "[I] left three points out there that we certainly could have used down the stretch in this game."
While 50-yard attempts are never automatic, Tucker was previously close to automatic. From 2016-2021, Tucker went 30-of-36 (83%) on kicks from 50-plus yards. He went 9-of-14 in 2022, and is now having his struggles from deep.
Before the Week 2 game, Tucker shot down concerns about his misses from deep.
"As simply as I can put it, it's not my favorite topic of discussion, but I just missed the kick," Tucker said. "I don't want to continue having this conversation. When I go out on the field, I'm confident that I'm going to nail every single kick, no matter where we are on the field."
Tucker has made all of his other fields goals and extra points this season.
However, it's worth wondering if his struggles from deep will begin to change the Ravens' thinking on offense — like if they'll go for it on fourth-down more often or feel they need to get closer to be in Tucker's range.
Tucker is already a legendary kicker, and it'll be a long time before the Ravens lose confidence in him. However, there will still be mounting pressure on Tucker the next time he lines up for a 50-plus yard kick.
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