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The Baltimore Ravens have been blessed to have one of the best kickers in the NFL for the past several seasons. Justin Tucker is one of the most reliable kickers in recent memory with an incredibly strong leg. Tucker does not want his role to diminish in 2024 now that the NFL is trying out new kickoff rules.
According to ESPN's Jamison Hensley, Tucker has added a few pounds of muscle in anticipation of more tackling responsibilities on kickoffs.
“This might be really surprising to a lot of you guys and a lot of my teammates because I don't hang out in the weight room too frequently,” Tucker said after the Baltimore Ravens' offseason practice Thursday. “Now I got to get some more shrugs, get the traps going a little bit, just to make sure I'm prepared for a little bit more contact.”
The NFL will try out XFL-style kickoff rules in 2024. It is a one-season trail that could become permanent if the experiment goes well. Under the new rules, gunners on kickoffs will line up at the receiving team's 40-yard line, just five yards away from the return team. That change truly makes the kicker the last line of defense for the kickoff team.
Tucker said that he noticed XFL kickers have been involved in roughly 25% of tackles on the revamped kickoff play.
“I have put on, like, 3.8 pounds,” Tucker said when asked if he plans to add even more muscle. “Can you guys tell? Probably not. But yeah, I'll leave it at that.”
Tucker has only logged eight tackles in 195 career games. Regardless, he's ready for more contact in 2024.
“I don't think [tackling is] necessarily something that is encouraged [for kickers], but it's not discouraged either,” Tucker said. “It kind of just comes with a territory. It's a football play. We're all football players out there, and ultimately if a returner is beelining toward the end zone and I'm the last guy there to stop him, it is part of my job description.”
Baltimore isn't scared to open the 2024 NFL season against Kansas City
The Baltimore Ravens will open the 2024 NFL season with a trip to Arrowhead to face the Kansas City Chiefs.
Kansas City has been Baltimore's kryptonite in the postseason. This past year, the Chiefs beat the Ravens 17-10 in the AFC Championship game.
However, Ravens QB Lamar Jackson is not worried about playing the Chiefs in Week 1.
“I really don’t care who we play; it really didn’t matter,” Jackson said, via a transcript from the team (h/t Josh Alper of Pro Football Talk). “At the end of the day, our goal is to make it to the Super Bowl.”
Jackson wisely points out that, beyond possible playoff tiebreakers, beating the Chiefs in the regular season doesn't mean anything. Beating them in they playoffs is what matters.
“We lost to them in the playoffs. Just us beating them in the regular season doesn’t really do anything,” Jackson said. “It just helps us keep stacking up wins to hopefully make it to the playoffs if anything to try to get in that same position again and hopefully be successful. It really doesn’t matter who we play [in the] first game; obviously it’s the Chiefs, but I really didn’t care.”
Hopefully the Ravens can finally get past the Chiefs in the playoffs this winter.
