The Baltimore Ravens have officially released Justin Tucker, according to Adam Schefter of ESPN, ending his 13-year tenure with the club. This decision doesn't come as a major surprise, given the fact that they just selected his replacement, Tyler Loop, in the NFL Draft.
Tucker's release comes amid a slew of off-field troubles. Tucker has been accused of inappropriate sexual behavior by a slew of massage therapists from several different spas in the Baltimore area.
In their statement, Ravens executive vice president and GM Eric DeCosta insisted that this decision was strictly based on football.
Ravens officially move on from Justin Tucker with Tyler Loop set to take the reigns
Tucker ends his Ravens tenure as one of, if not the greatest kicker in NFL history. He is the most accurate kicker in NFL history, having made 89.1 percent of his 468 field goal attempts. With that being said, from a football perspective, releasing Tucker does make sense, as DeCosta noted.
Had the Ravens not released Tucker, they would've either opted to carry two kickers or release Loop, essentially wasting a sixth-round pick. They were never going to waste their draft pick, so releasing Tucker was the move to make. In addition, Tucker is coming off the worst season of his career by far. He converted on just 22 of his 30 field goal attempts (73.3 percent) for the Ravens, making him one of the least accurate kickers in the league.
By making this move, the Ravens clear themselves of $4.2 million in cap space, assuming he's designated as a post-June 1 cut. They also might have upgraded at the kicker position.
Again, Tucker was one of the NFL's worst kickers this past season. Among the 20 kickers with at least 30 field goal attempts, Tucker's 73.3 percent success rate was the second-worst in the league. Moving on from a kicker who struggled that mightily, especially when considering his age (35) and the money they'll save by releasing him, does make a lot of sense.
The Ravens will hope that Loop, a kicker who completed 98.4 percent of his extra point attempts and 83.8 percent of his field goal opportunities during parts of five seasons with the Arizona Wildcats, will be an upgrade over Tucker at the NFL level. Betting on unknown prospects can be seen as a risk, but again, considering how subpar Tucker was, moving on from him in favor of Loop does make sense.