The Baltimore Ravens have a problem. Their All-Pro kicker, Justin Tucker, has been performing like anything but an All-Pro of late. Tucker missed three kicks on Sunday against the Eagles, including an extra point. There are a whole lot of people with a whole lot of theories about what's going on with the guy who was the most accurate kicker in the history of the game until recently, and one of those people is none other than Bill Belichick.
"Obviously there's something that's a little bit off from a technique standpoint," Belichick said during an appearance 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."
I'm not sure why Belichick thinks the problem began last season. Tucker's 86.5% conversion rate on field goals in 2023 was not quite as good as the 90.5% mark he had coming into the year, but it's close enough that if he had made merely one more kick, he would have been within a percentage point of that career average.
And down the stretch, he looked just fine: Tucker made all 21 of his extra points and all 15 of his field goals (including playoffs) after the Ravens returned from their Week 13 bye last season. Tucker also went 26 of 26 on extra points and 12 of 15 on field goals through the first seven weeks of this season. Again, that points toward any mechanical issue not being present starting last season, but instead cropping up more recently.
The only thing you can say was an issue in 2023 was the deepest of kicks. Tucker made 51 of 52 extra points, converted all 20 of his field goals inside of 40 yards and nailed 11 of 12 from 40-49 yards, but went just 1 of 5 on kicks at least 50 yards away. But that's probably just as attributable to age as it was to any mechanical issue. Tucker was 34 years old last year and is 35 now.
The more recent issue could possibly be mechanical. When you look at the results, it makes sense. Since Week 8, he's just 7 of 12 on field goals. But if you look at the misses, they're all pretty deep: His five missed field goals have come from 50, 47, 50, 47 and 53 yards out. Having them concentrated in such a short span is alarming, but a stretch of making 4 out of 8 field goals from 40-plus yards away isn't that abnormal -- even for a kicker as good as Tucker.
Is it possible the issue is mechanical or even mental? Obviously. And that would be concerning, because the fix for those type of issues is unlikely to come quickly. The Ravens are betting on the possibility that it's more about simple randomness, and that seems just as likely an explanation as any other.
