If there’s one thing Ravens fans value, it’s defense. If there are two things they value, they are defense and a sense of security in their team’s placekickers.
As Ravens fans, kickers have brought us highs, lows, and all points in between. From “Mr. Automatic” Matt Stover to “Mr. Wide Left” Billy Cundiff, to the current opera singing, Dr. Pepper drinking Justin Tucker.
As the Ravens lay out their offseason plans over the next few weeks, one item on the all important agenda list will be the contract of the former Texas Longhorn Justin Tucker.
A valued piece of the Ravens scoring aresenal, the undrafted Tucker will become a restricted free agent in 2015.
Since his arrival in Charm City in May of 2012, Tucker has taken the league by storm.
As you can see below, the 2013 Pro Bowler ranks as the NFL’s most accurate kicker of all time.
via Ravens PR
He was 1-for-1 in the AFC Divisional round, so you can up that number to 98 of 109 FGAs, to an 89.91 success rate.
In 2014, The Texas native became the second-fastest kicker in NFL history to reach the 400-point milestone, doing so in just his 48th game.
via Ravens PR
The strong legged kicker understands the business side of the NFL and was non committal at season’s end about his contractual status with the Ravens.
“I’m just going to focus on the next thing for me right now off the field, [which] is getting married. So, I’m pretty pumped about that,” said Tucker. “But we’ll let that process unfold on its own and take care of itself, and we’ll revisit it when the time is right.”
The question Ozzie Newsome and company ponder shouldn’t be “should we bring him back?” but rather, “how much are we willing to pay him to lock him up for years to come?”
As Tucker is a restricted free agent, the team has choices and certainly more wiggle room than if he were a UFA.
As our Brian McFarland pointed out in an earlier article, the Ravens have been generally known to tender all of their RFA’s. As with all restricted free agents, once a team tenders a player, that player can then be signed by another team. In Tucker’s case, the Ravens would have seven days to match the offer to retain the star kicker.
It’s likely Tucker will garner at the very least a second round tender from the organization given his success rate since donning the purple and black.
If the front office decides not to match the offer by another team, the Ravens would receive compensation by the signing team of the original tender.
The value of the tender may be enough to keep teams away this offseason and give the Ravens some time to work out a long-term contract.
Whatever the future brings remains to be seen but Tucker is thankful for his time in Baltimore.
“Part of me, no matter what happens, will always be a Raven,” responded Tucker when asked if he would like to return to Baltimore. “This team … We just got out of a meeting and [head coach John] ‘Harbs’ [Harbaugh] said, ‘This 2014 Ravens team will walk together forever in some way, just like the 2013 team will and the 2012 Super Bowl team will.
“So, I’ll always be thinking about that. But like I said, we just let the process unfold and kind of take care of itself, and we’ll revisit it at a later time.”
Follow me on Twitter @sportguyRSR
