{"id":203018,"date":"2024-12-01T20:10:59","date_gmt":"2024-12-02T01:10:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/?p=203018"},"modified":"2024-12-01T20:10:59","modified_gmt":"2024-12-02T01:10:59","slug":"ravens-coach-speaks-out-on-justin-tuckers-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2024\/12\/01\/ravens-coach-speaks-out-on-justin-tuckers-future\/","title":{"rendered":"Ravens Coach Speaks Out On Justin Tucker&#8217;s Future"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Justin Tucker was easily the NFL&#8217;s best kicker of the 2010&#8217;s, but age may be coming for the Ravens legend. Entering Week 13&#8217;s contest against the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/category\/nfl-teams\/eagles\/\" target=\"_self\">Philadelphia Eagles<\/a>, Tucker had converted a mere 17 of his 23 field goal attempts, good for one of the lowest rates in the league. Those already subpar numbers took a dip in the loss to the Eagles, as the five-time All-Pro missed an extra point, a 47-yard field goal, and a 53-yard field goal. Baltimore lost 24-19, and Tucker&#8217;s misses may have been the difference between victory and defeat.<\/p>\n<p>Tucker showed signs of slowing down last year and has only gotten worse in his age-35 season. Whether it&#8217;s the yips or just a physical dropoff, Justin Tucker is unreliable at this stage in his career. Seeing as kickers can have a massive impact on the game, fans and analysts across the league speculated that Baltimore could add some competition. However, <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2024\/09\/21\/john-harbaugh-ben-cleveland-trade-comments\/\" target=\"_self\">head coach John Harbaugh<\/a> put those rumors to rest in a postgame interview, saying that Tucker will remain the kicker for the duration of the season.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\"><a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Ravens?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#Ravens<\/a> HC John Harbaugh on the idea of switching kickers from Justin Tucker: \u201cI don\u2019t think that would be wise.\u201d <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/nO3HKBUJe4\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">https:\/\/t.co\/nO3HKBUJe4<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Ari Meirov (@MySportsUpdate) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/MySportsUpdate\/status\/1863386778486399378?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">December 2, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h2>Ravens John Harbaugh Defends Justin Tucker<\/h2>\n<p>For better or worse, the Ravens are stuck with Justin Tucker for the 2024 season. Reliable kickers are hard to find at any time in the year, but they&#8217;re especially rare at this point in the season. Finding an adequate free agent is difficult enough, but Baltimore would also need to create a roster spot. While another kicker could begin on the practice squad, they&#8217;d need to eventually be on the 53-man roster to earn an extended stay with the team. Doing this means either cutting Tucker or placing him on the injured reserve, which is a difficult decision to make.<\/p>\n<p>With this being said, don&#8217;t be surprised if the Ravens bring in competition in the offseason. With 90 open roster spots and <a  href=\"https:\/\/overthecap.com\/player\/justin-tucker\/1384\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">financial motivations<\/a> to part ways with Justin Tucker, a competent free agent or rookie could win the job next year.<\/p>\n<p><em>Main Photo: Mitch Stringer &#8211; USA Today Sports<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Future Hall of Fame kicker Justin Tucker has struggled during his 13th year with the Ravens, and John Harbaugh weighed in on his future<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2376,"featured_media":203019,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[931,388,7638],"class_list":["post-203018","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ravens","tag-john-harbaugh","tag-justin-tucker","tag-ravens-featured"],"modified_by":"David Latham, Managing Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203018","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2376"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=203018"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203018\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/203019"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=203018"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=203018"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=203018"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}