When it came down to the final play in the final game of the entire 2025 NFL regular season — a whopping 222 games — Baltimore Ravens rookie kicker Tyler Loop faced a career-defining moment.
Loop, a 2025 6th-round pick, was called upon to make a 44-yard field goal to clinch the AFC North Division title and send his team to the playoffs with a win over their most hated rival, the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Instead, Loop shanked the kick wide right as time expired in a 26-24 loss.
Now, Loop is back for a 2nd season and already on the hot seat — there’s little chance he gets another chance to play for the Ravens if he blows it like that again.
Training camp has shown he might be up to the challenge, including an eye-popping performance on Thursday.
“Tyler Loop just went 6-6, with his longest being from 61 yds,” Ravens reporter Cordell Woodland wrote on his official X account. “He was also good from 43,26,33,48, and 53.”
Loss Led to Huge Shakeup on Ravens
It’s not a stretch to say the loss to the Steelers and missing the playoffs directly led to the firing of head coach John Harbaugh after 18 seasons and 1 Super Bowl win.
Loop put his head in his hands and bent over at the knees following the miss, which followed a miraculous catch by tight end Isaiah Likely from Lamar Jackson on a 4th-and-7 to set up what should have been a relatively easy field goal for Loop.
“These are the moments you talk about 40, 50 years later,” SNF color commentator Cris Collinsworth said following the Steelers game. “If you’ve been around long enough, you know this night is what this rivalry is all about. I’ve seen some of the craziest stuff in the National Football League between these 2 teams, and we saw it again tonight.”
Loop was 7-of-7 on field goals from 40 to 49 yards before the final miss against the Steelers.
It wasn’t Loop’s first mistake in the loss — he sent a kickoff out of bounds to give the Steelers the ball at their own 40-yard line.
“Lamar Jackson said he did not talk to Tyler Loop after the game, but he did talk to him in the middle of the game when he kicked the ball our of bounds,” Ravens Vault’s Sarah Ellison wrote on X. “Lamar admitted he was ‘livid’ at him.”
‘Might as Well Deactivate His Socials’
As could be expected, the internet was incredibly unkind to Loop following the miss — everything from tagging him in tweets portraying famous movie and TV deaths (totally uncalled for) to clips of comedian Druski missing a field goal on ESPN’s College GameDay (kind of funny).
“He Might as well deactivate his socials before he even take his pads off,” Pee Wee Da Plug wrote on his official X account.
Loop very much kept his social media — his official Instagram account tells us that he and his fiancée, Julia, got married on May 22.
“Immeasurably more than all I could’ve asked for or imagined,” Julia Loop wrote on Instagram. “Mr. & Mrs. Loop!”
Embattled Ravens Kicker Shines at Training Camp