Justin Tucker is already the best kicker in NFL history

At a position riddled with inconsistency and inexplicable rises and falls from stardom, Baltimore Ravens kicker Justin Tucker stands out.

Every sport has that position. You know what I mean. The position everyone either loves or hates because games often come down to them. In hockey, it’s the goalie. In baseball, it’s the closer. In football, it’s the kicker. The NFL has the best players in the world, so it’s not surprising a good portion of NFL games are close. They usually come down to, ironically, the least athletic players on the team - the kickers.

Show me a good kicker, and I’ll show you a kicker who will most likely eventually fall from grace. The list of kickers who had inexplicable careers is endless. Billy Cundiff replaced Steve Hauschka for the Ravens. Cundiff did so well he earned an extension. And he was out of a job less than a year later.

It took Josh Lambo until he was 25 years old to get a chance in the NFL. He was inconsistent with the Chargers, making 81.3% of his field goals in each of his two seasons there. Somehow, moving to Jacksonville made him one of the league’s best kickers, as he has yet to not make at least 90% of his field goals in his four seasons there. Heck, if extra point attempts weren’t a thing (for whatever reason he has no issues making long field goals but he’s surprisingly inefficient at extra point attempts), he’d probably be thought of as a top 5 kicker in the league.

Graham Gano made Redskins fans pull out their hair for years. Panthers fans felt the same way until he led the league in field goal percentage in 2017. Three years later, he’s with the Giants.

That’s what makes the great kickers so special. Kickers are inconsistent as heck. They’ll effortlessly make a 55 yard kick right down the center and then hook a game-tying 35 yard field goal wide right as time expires.

And then there’s the truly elite kickers. Kickers who you don’t have to worry about. The Adam Vinatieris stand out because they consistently come up big. If Vinatieri wasn’t elite, Tom Brady wouldn’t have six Super Bowl rings.

Justin Tucker of the Baltimore Ravens, though, truly stands out because he’s the greatest kicker of all-time.

It’s easy to argue why he’s the best kicker. After all, Tucker has the highest field goal percentage of any kicker in NFL history (90.823%). The only other kicker to make at least 90% of his career field goals is Harrison Butker and he’s only attempted 132 while Tucker has attempted 316. Also, 59 of Tucker’s 316 attempts have been from at least 50 yards (18.67%). By comparison, 13.636% of Butker’s attempts (18 of 132) have been from at least 50 yards. Tucker has made over 70% of his career 50+ yard attempts while Butker has made 66.66% (two-thirds) of his. Butker has been great, but Tucker’s been better and he’s been greater for a longer period of time. The nod must go to Tucker.

Tucker also has the second-highest extra point percentage of any kicker who has played in the longer extra point era, trailing only Connor Barth, who played most of his career before 2015. Tucker has spent most of his career kicking longer extra points than the guys above him on the career XP% list.

Also, Justin Tucker went nearly a whole darn decade without missing an extra point. In two years (2010 and 2011) as the kicker of the Texas Longhorns, he made each of his 71 extra point attempts. He made the first 222 extra point attempts of his NFL career before missing his first one against the New Orleans Saints in 2018. That’s nearly 300 straight extra points (293 if you want to be precise). 73 of those extra points came after the NFL moved extra point attempts back to the 15 yard line, which makes an extra point a 33 yard attempt.

Now, let’s look at the arguments against Tucker being the best and examine why they’re complete horsecrap.

“He’s Never Led The NFL in Field Goal Percentage!”

First of all, if you are still looking at raw field goal percentage in 2020, you’re either ignorant, dumb, or a combination of the two. Not all field goals are created equally. Hypothetically, let’s say Kicker A makes 15 of 15 field goals, but only 5 of them are from 40 yards or more. Meanwhile, Kicker B makes 38 of 39 attempts with 24 of those 38 field goals made coming from at least 40 yards. Which kicker would you rather have?

If you said Kicker A, congratulations, you think Kai Forbath was a better kicker than Justin Tucker in 2016. Please return to your village because I’m sure your village misses its idiot.

Secondly, Tucker has finished in the top 10 in field goal percentage 7 times in the past 9 years. He narrowly missed leading the league in FG% twice. We’ve already discussed the shenanigans of 2016. Retroactively, let’s hand the FG% title to Tucker.

Anyway, in 2019, Josh Lambo made 33 of 34 field goals while Tucker made 28 of 29. Had the Ravens not been so great at scoring touchdowns that year, maybe Tucker edges out Lambo. Yes, Tucker missed two extra points that year, but nobody cares because the Ravens blew almost every team they faced out of the water. On a team with a ton of Pro Bowlers, one of the greatest right guards of all-time (Marshal Yanda), and the NFL MVP (Lamar Jackson), Justin Tucker might have been the best player on the 2019 Ravens.

Thirdly, Tucker has been named to four first-team All-Pro teams. That might not sound like much, but despite being in the NFL for just eight seasons (including this one), he’s already tied with Lou Groza for the most first-team All-Pro team appearances of all-time. While Tucker has only made 3 Pro Bowl appearances, nobody freaking cares about the Pro Bowl, so stop acting like Pro Bowls mean something.

“But Kickers Don’t Belong In The Hall Of Fame!”

This is something I see on Twitter just about every day. And it’s bogus. Kickers are football players. Ergo, they belong in the Hall of Fame. The best closers in MLB history are in the Hall of Fame. So why shouldn’t the best kickers be enshrined in Canton?

Kickers are the second-least represented position in the Hall of Fame, trailing only punters. There are three kickers* in the Hall of Fame and only one punter**. But even considering how rare it is for a kicker to get into the Hall of Fame, Tucker could decide to retire right now to be an opera singer and he’d be a Hall of Famer.

* It should be four the first year Adam Vinatieri is eligible. If anyone wants to try to argue Adam freaking Vinatieri shouldn’t be in the Hall of Fame, be my guest. But you’re wrong.

**Shane Lechler should make it two eventually because it’s comical how much better he was than his peers. He has the longest career yards per punt average and the second highest career punt yardage total.

In case I haven’t convinced you that Justin Tucker is the best kicker in NFL history yet, let it be known that Bill Belichick, the same coach who owes multiple Super Bowl rings to the reliable leg of Adam Vinatieri, is on record saying Justin Tucker is the best kicker in NFL history. If Belichick calls someone he has never coached the GOAT, they are the GOAT. No debate.

And if that doesn’t convince you Tucker’s the best kicker in NFL history, how many kickers can do this?

Let’s hear Harrison Butker or Stephen Gostkowski or David Akers or Robbie Gould sing opera. On second thought, let’s not because nobody wants to hear that. Meanwhile, Justin Tucker can sing with professional opera singers and not sound the slightest bit out of place.

Also, how many kickers have this much confidence and swag? Kickers are usually boring. Someone forgot to give that memo to Mr. Tucker.

If you’re daft enough to think Tucker isn’t clutch, just ask Ravens fans, who don’t even need to ask “did Justin Tucker make that clutch kick?” because the answer is almost always “yes.”

Don’t believe me? Just ask the Cleveland Browns.

Or the San Francisco 49ers.

Or the Detroit Lions.

Or the New England Patriots*

*Let’s be honest, even if the refs blew the call, the replacement refs were gone a few days later. Justin Tucker, along with the infamous Packers-Seahawks Fail Mary the following night, got us the real refs back.

Or the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Or the Denver Broncos.

Or the St. Louis Rams.

Or the Cincinnati Bengals.

I’m sure they’d tell you a different story. But what do they know? I’m sure ClevelandRocks3498134, BigBenStan69420, and BradyGOAT121212 on Twitter know more about football than them, right?

Bow down to Tucker, the greatest kicker and opera singer in NFL history.