The Ravens have signed All-Pro kicker Justin Tucker to a four-year extension, the team announced Monday.
Tucker’s deal, which extends his contract through 2027, will keep him as the NFL’s highest-paid kicker. The contract is worth $24 million, or $6 million annually, and includes $17.5 million guaranteed and an $11.5 million signing bonus, according to ESPN.
“It means the world to me to continue my career here in Baltimore,” he said Monday. “My home, my family’s home — it’s truly special to know I’ll be accounted for for the next six seasons. ... This is my home, and I couldn’t be happier.”
Tucker’s extension comes after an impressive 2021 season, during which he led the NFL in field-goal accuracy (95.6%) and extra-point accuracy (100%). Tucker converted two game-winning field goals, including an NFL-record 66-yarder in a victory over the Detroit Lions in Week 3, and enters 2022 having made 58 straight fourth-quarter and overtime field-goal attempts.
Tucker, 32, a five-time Pro Bowl and first-team All-Pro selection, is the most accurate kicker in league history and among the greatest-ever special teams players. In a recent ESPN survey of experts, reporters and analysts, former New England Patriots and Indianapolis Colts kicker Adam Vinatieri just edged Tucker in voting on the best player in NFL history at the position.
Tucker has made 91.1% of his career field goal attempts, 99% of his extra-point attempts and is the first kicker in NFL history to register at least 130 points in six straight seasons. Since 2012, Tucker ranks first in the NFL in field goals made (326) and points (1,360). His 1,360 points scored are also the most in the first 10 seasons of a career in NFL history.
When he was asked after a training camp practice Sunday about his likelihood of making the Pro Football Hall of Fame, Tucker brushed off the suggestion and praised his teammates.
“I really try not to think about that stuff,” he said. “I really try to make it a point to take it one kick at a time. That’s something that I heard from my agent coming out of college, and it’s some of the best advice I’ve ever gotten, right next to my grandfather when I was trying out for the high school varsity team at Westlake [High School] in Austin [Texas]. He said, ‘Justin, just kick the damn ball.’ ...
“My focus is much more on just taking it one kick at a time, one practice at a time, one game at a time. ... They’re not even just saying it about me; they’re saying it about us; they’re saying it about what the Ravens’ specialists and their coaches have been able to put together, as a whole, collectively. So, yes, I think about it as, ‘Oh, that’s nice,’ but I’ve still got to take it one kick at a time, and there is a lot more than just me kicking the ball.”
