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Justin Tucker's hall-of-fame career has taken a turn for the worse with the Baltimore Ravens this season. By the numbers, the seven-time Pro-Bowler has been among the NFL's worst kickers.
After Tucker missed two field goals and an extra point during Baltimore's Week 13 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles, Bill Belichick offered his opinion on why the 35-year-old has struggled.
“Obviously, there’s something that’s a little bit off from a technique standpoint,” Belichick said on the Let's Go Podcast. “But I don’t see that there’s like a lack of talent. I think there’s something mechanically that he’s not doing consistently. If you have the key to unlock that problem, then probably everything could be great.”
“But clearly this extends back even to last year a little bit, too, because there was some accuracy issues last year in the ‘23 season as well as the current season. So I think Coach Harbaugh is doing the right thing. I would stick with Justin Tucker. This guy was the most accurate kicker in the history of football. He gets great height on the ball. He’s been super consistent. He’s obviously having a little bit of a rough patch right here but it doesn’t look to me like his talent level has declined. There’s something mechanically that just isn’t quite right all the time. I think they just gotta work hard and try to find that.”
Tucker is 19-of-27 (70.4 percent) on field goals this season. His eight misses are tied with Atlanta Falcons kicker Younghoe Koo for the most in the NFL.
Justin Tucker's struggles reach new low in Ravens' loss to Eagles
Tucker's misses in Philadelphia were deflating to a Baltimore offense struggling to finish drives. Despite his kicker's extended slump, Ravens head coach John Harbaugh said he won't be making a change at the position.
“You rack your brain, you think about everything, because that’s a big deal. Obviously, we all know it, Justin knows it, too,” Harbaugh said Monday. “Points were at a premium in the game, they have been in a few of these games. Sometimes, we haven’t made the most of our opportunities to score points because you’re [not] making kicks. And Justin expects to make every kick, no matter how far it is or what the situation is. And those are makable kicks for him.”
“So, yeah, we’re racking our brains, talking to Justin, looking at what we’re doing. I’m very confident that it’s going to get fixed. I believe it will. It has to. And he’s the guy to get it fixed. So sometimes you respect the player and you respect his ability to get it worked out. And with help from the coaching … I feel confident that it’ll get done.”
The Ravens will have little margin for error the rest of the way if they hope to put themselves in position for a deep playoff run. After Sunday's loss dropped them to 8-5, they trail the Pittsburgh Steelers by two games in the loss column for the lead in the AFC North.
Tucker and Baltimore will have a Week 14 Bye to regroup before traveling to face the New York Giants in Week 15.
