Steelers Rival Has Competition We Never Saw Coming

The Pittsburgh Steelers will see something new from the Baltimore Ravens they haven't seen in a long time.

Jan 4, 2025; Baltimore, Maryland, USA; Baltimore Ravens head coach John Harbaugh before the game against the Cleveland Browns at M&T Bank Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Tommy Gilligan-Imagn Images | Tommy Gilligan-Imagn Images

PITTSBURGH — The Pittsburgh Steelers and Baltimore Ravens will face off twice in the 2025 season, but things will look a bit different between the AFC North rivals. For the first time in over a decade, the Ravens will not have place kicker Justin Tucker on their roster.

Instead, the Steelers’ rival is having their first kicking competition since the 2012 season when Tucker earned the job. For the next 12 seasons, he’d become one of the best and most consistent field goal kickers in the NFL. Now, the Ravens are again entering a kicking competition, this time between recent sixth-round selection Tyler Loop and undrafted free agent John Hoyland. The Athletic's Jeff Zrebiec recently detailed the tight competition unfolding at training camp.

“The Ravens did extensive work on all the available kickers in the draft and decided Arizona’s Tyler Loop was the guy they wanted," he wrote. “Loop is still the favorite to succeed Tucker, but it appears the Ravens are headed for their first training camp kicking competition since Tucker beat out Billy Cundiff before the 2012 season."

While the University of Arizona product was brought in to be the replacement for Tucker, it hasn’t been an easy transition for the Ravens. Loop reportedly struggled at several of the team’s minicamp sessions, and his inconsistencies forced the team to add another kicker, John Hoyland, to the roster before training camp began.

"Loop had a few rocky offseason practices, opening the door for John Hoyland, an undrafted rookie out of Wyoming," Zrebiec continued. "Hoyland’s form has been good enough to suggest the Ravens could have a difficult decision to make late in the preseason."

The Ravens obviously want their sixth-round draft pick to succeed and become the starting kicker in Baltimore, but Loop has plenty to prove before he earns that role. When training camp begins, the competition should reach a new intensity.

Back in Pittsburgh, the Steelers should be ecstatic about this competition. Whoever wins the job will have to deal with a nasty AFC North lineup, all with special teams defenses eager to get after a rookie kicker. The 2025 season is nearing, and the rivalries are already heating up before training camp begins.

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