Although it’s the offseason, the Baltimore Ravens find themselves forced to make a decision on one of their best players from the past decade. Five-time All-Pro kicker Justin Tucker is the most accurate kicker in NFL history, making 89.1 percent of his field goals across his 13-year career.
Yet, now he’s mired in controversy, facing 10 accusations of committing sexual assault during massage therapy sessions. The Ravens have already responded, indicating that they expect their kicker to return to the team next season, but outside pressure is mounting on the organization.
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Baltimore Ravens could wait until March to cut bait with Justin Tucker
As great as Justin Tucker has been, earning seven trips to the Pro Bowl, he’s coming off his worst season yet. The 35-year-old Texas native made a career-low 73.3% of his field goals, which included going 6-of-11 on kicks from 50 or more yards.
In other words, the Ravens could easily cite performance-related reasons for moving on from Tucker if they wanted to. However, the latest accusations against him provide another reason to move on.
Yet, as Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio points out, the Ravens could choose to wait until the start of a new league year, which occurs in March. This would allow the Ravens to split the dead cap charge across two seasons instead of suffering the blow all at once.
Tucker signed a four-year, $22 million contract extension with Baltimore in 2022. He still has three years left on his contract, which runs through 2028. Yet, as Florio suggests, the Ravens could designate Tucker as a post-June 1 cap casualty, which would initiate a $7.5 million dead cap charge for 2025.
Or the Ravens could choose to spread the dead cap charge across two seasons. This would mean they’d be paying $2.8 million to get rid of Tucker in 2025 and another $4.6 million in 2026. They’d also be avoiding Tucker’s 2025 salary, which is $4.2 million.
