Ravens Coach Jesse Minter Didn't Rule Out A Kicker Competition After Tyler Loop Struggled Friday

It would be beyond stubborn for the Baltimore Ravens not to bring in a veteran kicker to compete with youngster Tyler Loop. It would be silly.

And for the first time this summer, despite several previous situations when Loop was kicking in stadiums that did not go swimmingly, rookie head coach Jesse Minter finally seems ready to do something about it. Minter’s tone about his kicker changed after Loop missed two kicks in the first half of a 41-3 blowout win over the Commanders at M&T Bank Stadium Friday night, hinting at changes.

Loop missed three of eight kicks in the preseason, he’s had some issues with kickoffs and he also continued to send kicks wide of the mark in a practice at College Park. Loop’s preseason misses all came at his home stadium, and he missed the final kick of last season at Pittsburgh to keep Baltimore from reaching the postseason and this situation must be addressed this weekend with roster cutdowns ongoing.

“I think you want to see makes in games,” Minter said after the game. “and so it’s something we’ll continue to look at. We’ll continue to look at what the best situation is there. He has had a good camp overall, but it comes down to making the kicks in pressure situations in the games.”

There was decidedly more wiggle room in this response than at any prior time Minter was asked to address the performance of his second-year kicker. Loop exuded confidence and rattled off his stats when meeting the media this summer and defended his process and mechanisms after the missed kick in the preseason opener two weeks ago. But even his body language looked different kicking off and making field goals Friday after his brutal first half.

His shoulders were more slumped, and he wasn’t celebrating the makes like he normally would. Loop, drafted a year ago, had a major spotlight on him all summer with very few real roster battles in this camp, and the Ravens refusing to bring in veteran competition to truly push him, though we made the case for it April and May and July and August.

When Minter was asked about whether the team would be seeking to bring someone in – the pool of proven veteran kickers is shrinking but these names stand out – he didn’t want to fully commit to any course of action. The personnel department and his assistants will be very involved in any process. But he also offered no platitudes about his current kicker and didn’t push the issue off or close the door verbally in ways he has before.

“There’s a million scenarios there to try to make sure we have the best situation there heading into Indy,” Minter said of facing the Colts in Indianapolis in Week 1.

Stubbornness Is Foolishness

The Ravens really want this to work out and their kicking guru, Randy Brown, is a legend.

But no one bats 1000, taking over for Justin Tucker was always going to be tricky, and Loop did not show he could kick accurately from distance last season though overall he had a solid rookie year. But distance matters, and the clutch gene matters, and shaking off a miss as massive as his in Week 17 was never going to be easy.

One longtime NFL personnel guy texted me after Loop’s first miss Friday: “The Ravens need a new FG kicker. I bet he misses another kick before the half now. It’s a mental issue after missing a playoff kick. It’s so obvious. They have to see it.”

Well, that was prescient.

But then again none of this was surprising if you’ve been following closely, which made the decision not to challenge him at the start of camp always a bit foolish. Loop missing from 58 early in the game – he had the distance – is one thing but pushing it wide again from 51, that has to be the end of him being the only kicker on this roster.

And maybe the end of him being on the roster. You need to be good from 50 in this era, and with a rookie offensive coordinator and a brand new offense and the possibility of a learning curve there, it matters.

Problem is, the kickers on the street have issues too; the pool of free agents has been picked thin. Might be more likely the Ravens sign someone who is cut elsewhere, who has been in a camp, rather than someone waiting all summer for a call. Undoubtedly there will be some lesser-known kickers who Brown likes.

But they need someone who can be good from 50 with games on the line. Even, hopefully, playoff games. So grabbing one early in the offseason would have been preferable.

Maybe the competition of kicking for his job against someone else would bring out the best in Loop. Maybe they can stash him on their practice squad and continue to try to develop him for the future.

But they’ve been naïve about this situation since their season crumbled in Pittsburgh. And they’d better stop choosing words carefully and talking around the problem and actually do something about it.

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