Baltimore Beatdown
The Baltimore Beatdown staff share their reactions to the news of the Ravens releasing kicker Justin Tucker.
The Baltimore Ravens announced they have released kicker Justin Tucker. Below are the reactions from the Baltimore Beatdown staff.
Early in my writing career, I grew a fascination for special teams; it became my specialty. I adored writing about the most accurate kickers in NFL history. It became my annual pre-season tradition. Lengthy hours poured into tracking every field goal attempt by the NFL’s most-accurate. It felt great highlighting kicking as a whole, and to shine a light on the greatness of Tucker. After all, he was a Raven.
For the past three months — and for the rest of my days — I’ll feel tainted by trumpeting Tucker’s on-field greatness.
He’s the greatest to ever do it. And yet, his legacy is ruined. More importantly, he hurt more than a dozen victims.
His actions hurt many. His actions fractured the Ravens’ moral standing, years after the team announced and boasted their “zero-tolerance policy” when the Browns signed Deshaun Watson.
I use this platform to not speak any more on Tucker, but to share a way to support victims of sexual violence. Consider donating to RAINN today. — Kyle Phoenix
The writing was on the wall when the Ravens drafted a kicker in the sixth round. The recent allegations against Tucker paired with his sharp decline on the field the past two seasons made this decision easy, but it’s still an unfortunate way for things to end for the greatest kicker in NFL history.
Baltimore now enters uncertain territory at the kicker position for the first time since 2012 when they went with Tucker as an undrafted rookie out of Texas. The Ravens special teams unit struggled mightily last season, so an unknown at kicker could present an upgrade. — Dustin Cox
It’s a weird feeling. This is the right move by the Ravens. Both for moral reasons and to give your rookie draft-pick kicker the best mindset going into the season. I assumed it would happen, but it’s invokes a foreign feeling.
Justin Tucker, for a long time, was the heart and soul of this team, especially during a time when offensive scoring was minimal after the Super Bowl 47. But his play the last two seasons had gone down, and, more importantly, the accusations against him were too great to ignore.
It’s a shame it had to end this way in Baltimore for somebody who should have been remembered as the greatest kicker of all time. Unfortunately, it probably won’t be the first thought now. — Zach Canter
