Getty Baltimore Ravens kicker Justin Tucker celebrates a made field goal in 2016.
The Baltimore Ravens have signed All-Pro kicker Justin Tucker to a four-year extension that will keep the 32-year-old in Baltimore through the 2027 season, the team announced on August 8.
EXTENDED❗️❗️
We’ve reached a four-year contract extension with the best to ever do it, @jtuck9 ❗️❗️
NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport later tweeted out the details of the deal, which has a total value of $24 million with $17.5 million guaranteed.
Tucker’s $6 million per-year salary makes him the highest-paid kicker in the NFL, a distinction he held after signing his last extension in 2019. That four-year, $20 million deal was recently matched by Chris Boswell, who received an extension from the Pittsburgh Steelers last week.
Boswell’s contract was likely the driving force behind Tucker’s extension, ensuring that the NFL’s best kicker is compensated accordingly.
In 2021, Tucker made 35 of his 37 field goal attempts for a league-leading 94.6% conversion rate, including a perfect 6-of-6 from 50 yards or more. He set an all-time NFL record with a 66-yard game-winning field goal against the Detroit Lions, and also converted all 32 of his extra point attempts, showing he’s still firmly the best kicker in the game.
The extension also shows that the Ravens are committed to paying their elite players –All-Pros Marlon Humphrey, Ronnie Stanley, Marcus Peters and Mark Andrews have all signed extensions in recent years – with all eyes remaining on Lamar Jackson’s contract negotiations.
Tucker was effusive in his post-practice press conference after signing his new contract, telling media:
I feel beyond blessed. I’m fired up, I’m motivated. All the things I was feeling before I signed, but maybe a little bit more after putting pen to paper. I’m fired up, I’m blessed. I know that I get to come to work at an amazing place with amazing people. we get to continue working on building something great and working towards championships. Just to know that I will be in the plans for exactly that makes me feel very special.
Tucker Named 2nd Greatest Kicker of All-Time
Tucker narrowly came in second place in ESPN’s poll of 50 experts, reporters and analysts among the greatest kickers in NFL history, behind only former Patriots and Colts kicker Adam Vinatieri.
Tucker still can lay claim to being the most accurate and the most powerful kicker in history, though, as the holder of the all-time NFL records for both field goal conversion percentage (91.061%) and longest made field goal (66 yards).
ESPN’s Jamison Hensley argued for Tucker to take the top spot, writing:
Tucker is the best kicker in the game because of his accuracy and ability to come through in the most pressure-filled situations, converting 91.1% of his field goals (best in NFL history). And he has connected on 58 straight field goals in the fourth quarter and overtime, including a record 66-yarder last year.
A Longshot MVP Candidate?
Tucker’s history of late-game heroics even earned him consideration from ESPN’s Bill Barnwell as an unlikely MVP candidate. Ex-Washington kicker Mark Moseley is the only kicker to have won the award with his 1982 campaign that featured several game-winners in a shortened season.
“[Tucker] would need something virtually unprecedented” to win MVP, wrote Barnwell. “The Ravens would need to win at least 14 games. He would need to be perfect (or come close) and hit at least five game-winners, preferably from long distance and in games Baltimore was losing.”
Most of the NFL’s elite quarterbacks would need to have difficult seasons, as well, in order for a kicker to seriously earn MVP consideration. It’s not likely, but Tucker certainly has the leg talent and the poise to make all the kicks he would need to make an MVP case.