Justin Tucker's Field Goal Percentage Has Fallen Off A Cliff Since Viral Pregame Drama With Travis Kelce
We're currently living in a world where Justin Tucker is not the best, most reliable kicker in the National Football League.
Since his rookie year in 2012 - for context Lamar Jackson was still in high school then - Tucker has been virtually automatic for the Baltimore Ravens and shined whenever the moment got bigger. Father Time and likely a simple spell of bad luck have reared their ugly heads this season, and now Tucker could be described as a liability for the Ravens.
The Ravens lost at home to the Philadelphia Eagles 24-19 on Sunday in a game where Tucker missed from 47 yards and 53 yards on back-to-back drives while also missing his first extra-point attempt of the game. Technically speaking, Tucker leaving six points on the board cost Baltimore the game.
The 35-year-old is now 19-for-27 on the season with three of his misses coming from the 40-49 yard range and the other five coming from 50 yards or more, putting his make percentage on the year at just 70.4%. That number is jarring given the fact that Tucker has never finished a season with a mark under 82.5% (2015) and has registered a make percentage of at least 90% in six of his previous 12 seasons.
Following the Ravens' loss to Philadelphia, Baltimore head coach John Harbaugh gave an eye-opening quote about Tucker's status on the roster.
"If you’re asking me are we going to move on from Justin Tucker, I’m not really planning on doing that right now," Harbaugh said.
The words "right now" seem to be carrying a lot of weight in that statement.
So, the question is, what the hell is going on with Justin Tucker? With eight misses and Tucker costing his team a win, most have moved past the idea that it's some sort of mechanical or kick-path issue. Given the frequency of the misses, some fans have begun to think Travis Kelce, Patrick Mahomes, and some sort of bad juju is playing a factor in all of this.
In case you may have forgotten, Tucker, Mahomes, and Kelce were in the middle of some drama during pregame warmups ahead of the Chiefs-Ravens playoff matchup in Baltimore last season.
With Mahomes beginning his warmup routine on the goal line of one of Baltimore's endzones, Kelce took it upon himself to move Tucker's equipment aside so his quarterback could get to work.
Tucker made his lone field goal attempt of the game that afternoon, but the Ravens lost 17-10. After a long offseason of having to be reminded of falling short to the Chiefs and getting on Kelce's bad side, Tucker is in the midst of putting together the worst season of his career.
A stupid coincidence? Probably, but maybe not.
Getting on the wrong side of the man who dates Taylor Swift and becoming an enemy of the tens of millions of Swfities around the world can not be a good omen.