Ravens Cut Kicker Tucker

Sometimes it does not matter how productive you are. No one is above or should tarnish the shield of the National Football League. The Baltimore Ravens came to the difficult decision to part ways with veteran kicker Justin Tucker on Monday after 13 seasons with the team.

The Ravens announced the shocking move and released a statement from executive vice president and general manager Eric DeCosta, calling it a “football decision” that was “incredibly difficult.” The team also thanked Tucker for his years of service.

“Sometimes football decisions are incredibly difficult, and this is one of those instances. Considering our current roster, we have made the tough decision to release Justin Tucker,” Ravens DeCosta said in a statement.

“Justin created many significant and unforgettable moments in Ravens history. His reliability, focus, drive, resilience and extraordinary talent made him one of the league’s best kickers for over a decade. We are grateful for Justin’s many contributions while playing for the Ravens. We sincerely wish him and his family the very best in this next chapter of their lives.”

Tucker finds himself in the midst of a league investigation after several allegations of sexual misconduct.

Back in January of this year, an article from The Baltimore Banner’s Julie Scharper, Brenna Smith and Justin Fenton detailed disturbing accusations of “inappropriate sexual behavior” against Tucker by six massage therapists. In February, seven additional massage therapists came out and brought forth more allegations against Tucker. A total of 16 massage therapists said Tucker’s actions occurred between the years of 2012 and 2016.

In a statement released after the article from The Baltimore Banner, Tucker vehemently denied the allegations, calling them “unequivocally false.”

To protect themselves from a football perspective, the Ravens drafted kicker Tyler Loop in the sixth round of the NFL draft in April. On Sunday, Baltimore coach John Harbaugh addressed the elephant in the room of having both kickers on the roster and said any decision made “has to be based on football.”

“I would just say from the standpoint of the investigation and all that, we don’t know anything,” Harbaugh said, via the team’s official transcript (h/t NFL.com’s Kevin Patra). “We haven’t been given any information, as it should be. It’s all done the way it’s done. So, we don’t know anything along those lines, so you can’t make any decisions based on that.

“Every decision we make has to be based on football. There’s a lot of layers to that. You’ve got a rookie kicker in here. We took him in the sixth round, early in the sixth round. He’s a talented guy. Just from a football standpoint, salary cap, all the different things that you just take into consideration — whatever we decide to do over the next few weeks would be based on football.”

Loop, who played for the Arizona Wildcats, was nearly automatic, making 126 of his 128 extra-point attempts for the Wildcats and had a career field-goal percentage of 83.8. He made seven of his eight attempts between 40 and 49 yards and six of his nine attempts from 50-plus as a senior.

Tucker was cut with three years remaining on a four-year, $22 million contract extension that made him the league’s highest-paid kicker at the time. The Ravens will not have to be on the hook for his $4.2 million salary in 2025, which is the first year of his deal where none of his salary was guaranteed. Baltimore can gain $4.2 million in salary cap space this year by designating him as a post-June 1 cut, which splits his $7.5 million dead money right down the middle over two seasons.

Tucker is a seven-time Pro Bowler, but he struggled to find consistency in 2024, posting a career-worst 73.3 field-goal percentage and missing two short extra points. Tucker was the longest-tenured player on the Ravens and the last remaining player from the team’s Super Bowl championship team in 2012, where John beat his younger brother Jim, who was coaching Colin Kaepernick and the San Francico 49ers at the time.

One of Baltimore’s most popular athletes over the last decade plus, Tucker is widely known for his opera singing and comedic commercials for a local convenience store. His No. 9 jersey was among the most worn by fans at Ravens home games taking place at M&T Stadium.