In the 13 seasons he’s been in the NFL, Baltimore Ravens kicker Justin Tucker has been a model of consistency and will likely be a surefire Hall of Famer as one of the greatest at his position in the history of the league.
But this year has been a remarkably different story than in years past, with NFL fans trying to pinpoint a moment where it all started to go wrong.
Tucker came into Baltimore as an undrafted free agent in 2012 to replace Billy Cundiff – who the year prior, missed a chip-shot 32-yard field goal in the AFC Championship game against the New England Patriots as time expired to send the Pats to Super Bowl XLVI.
He immediately took the league by storm – hitting 90 percent of his field goals in his rookie season and winning the Super Bowl. In the years following, he’s been named an All-Pro and a Pro Bowler multiple times, led the league in field goals made three times, and set the NFL record for the longest field goal ever made at 66 yards.
But through 13 games in 2024, Tucker is on track for the worst season of his career – currently holding a field goal completion percentage of only 70.4 percent. His career-low prior to this was 82.5 percent in 2015.
For a kicker so reliable, this sudden drop in form is jarring. Some fans believe they’ve pinpointed the moment where it all went south: last year’s AFC Championship game where Travis Kelce and Patrick Mahomes of the Kansas City Chiefs interrupted Tucker’s warmups.
If you’ll recall, last year, the Chiefs were playing in Baltimore to decide who would go to Super Bowl LVIII.
Prior to the game, Tucker was warming up in the end zone, when Mahomes and Kelce both strolled over and began working out in his space.
Moreover, Kelce decided to toss aside the balls Tucker was using to kick as well as his helmet. In the aftermath of the game, Kelce said that the kicker was warming up in the Chiefs end and that there’s an ‘unwritten rule’ that opposing players should stay out of the way of quarterbacks. He also added that Tucker was trying to ‘poke the bear’.
Even Tucker addressed the situation after the game, saying he moved his helmet when asked by Mahomes, but not enough for Kelce’s liking: ‘I just thought it was all just some gamesmanship, all in good fun but they seemed to be taking it a little more seriously.’
While the mindgames had zero effect on Tucker – who went 1/1 on field goals and 1/1 on extra points in the AFC title game – the Chiefs won 17-10 and Kelce caught a crucial touchdown in the contest. Kansas City would go on to win the Super Bowl last year, winning back-to-back titles.
Despite the fact that Tucker was (allegedly) the instigator, and it had zero effect on his performance in the game itself, multiple fans on social media once again gave air to the theory that Kelce’s standing-up to the Baltimore kicker was the beginning of his downfall.
One fan tweeted video of the incident with the caption, ‘This ruined Justin Tucker’s career,’ while another fan said, ‘Travis Kelce took Justin Tucker’s soul.’
Another user suggested that Kansas City’s ‘dark magic’ could be to blame while another simply said, ‘Tucker is cooked’.
This ruined Justin Tucker’s careerpic.twitter.com/rDxHcpDs4l
— Brad Henson Productions (@BradHensonPro) December 1, 2024
Tucker’s performance this week against the Philadelphia Eagles was particularly tough to watch as he missed two field goals and an extra point attempt in the 24-19 defeat.
While it’s reductionist to say that Tucker’s misses cost the team the game, the points left off the board by the misses would have given Baltimore a two point win by a score of 26-24 had they gone through.
Instead, the loss now has Baltimore owning an 8-5 record going into their bye week in Week 14.
Once that concludes, Tucker will hope to get back on track when Baltimore travels to New Jersey to take on the New York Giants.
