The Ravens aren’t overreacting to Tyler Loop’s miss to open the preseason last Saturday night.
Whether they’re underreacting remains to be seen.
This isn’t about making too much of a 49-yard field goal attempt going wide right in the first quarter of a meaningless exhibition contest that’ll be forgotten in a matter of days. Loop himself pointed out in the postgame locker room that he’d gone 40-for-42 to that point in training camp, which is well and good and the minimum you wanted to see from him coming back from his gut-wrenching 44-yard miss in Pittsburgh to finish the 2025 season.
But missing his first live-game kick since that Week 18 heartbreak seven months ago was the last thing you wanted to see for Loop and for the Ravens, who have shown great confidence in their second-year kicker by not bringing in any competition this spring or summer.
“I will say it was our first time kicking [on the] new surface down there in the stadium — first time we had been able to get in there,” head coach Jesse Minter said Monday. “Normally, we’d have maybe had a practice in there. We weren’t able to do that because of [stadium events] going on. I feel good about where Tyler’s at. I think he’s had a really good camp.
“Obviously, it comes down to making them in those situations, so we’ll keep trying to put him out there as much as we can.”
The concern that preceded even Loop’s miss against the Steelers is that he remains so unproven, which leads to more angst over a preseason miss.
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Had there been a few more pressure situations and makes under Loop’s belt prior to that January night in Pittsburgh, it would have been a little easier to move past the Week 18 miss and trust in his talents moving forward. But it wasn’t a secret to anyone watching that he wasn’t tested all that much from a high-leverage standpoint over the first 16 games. The biggest spot he faced prior to Week 18 was a Week 11 game-tying 44-yard field goal with five minutes to go in Cleveland.
In contrast, Justin Tucker made multiple game-winning kicks and faced a slew of pressure opportunities to prove his mettle during his rookie campaign.
In going 29-for-30 from inside 50 yards in his first year, Loop demonstrated obvious competency and a high floor that shouldn’t be taken for granted when you recognize the kicking woes some teams endure annually. The shortage of high-pressure chances before Week 18 wasn’t Loop’s fault, but that crushing miss was always going to be more magnified as a result.
There’s also the matter of Loop going an underwhelming 1-for-4 on tries beyond 50 yards with his only make being his first career field goal try — a 52-yarder in Buffalo in last year’s opener. His unsuccessful tries included a 56-yard attempt indoors at Minnesota and a 56-yarder that came up short early in the second half of a narrow Week 16 loss to New England. For context, 18 kickers made at least five from 50-plus yards last season, which speaks to the range expectations for modern kickers worth their salt.
“We’re comfortable putting him anywhere,” said special teams coordinator Anthony Levine about Loop’s range earlier this month. “We have the confidence in Tyler Loop to go out and make any kick from anywhere on the field, and he has proven that so far in training camp. … Right now, we love where he’s at. We love his confidence, love him being consistent. As long as he keeps doing that, he’s going to keep getting better.”
As has been the case for much of the Lamar Jackson era, the Ravens aim to have an offense that won’t depend too much on field goals, but contenders still need someone they can trust in the biggest moments and from long distance when required. You don’t need the best kicker in the league to win a Super Bowl, but you better have a good one.
The problem is there’s just no way of truly knowing whether Loop is going to move past the Pittsburgh miss to become that guy worthy of such trust. At the same time, there isn’t anyone resembling a prime Adam Vinatieri or a baggage-free and younger version of Tucker just sitting on the open market, which is likely another reason why general manager Eric DeCosta hasn’t added competition to this point.
8The Ravens are hoping their confidence in Loop will pay off, but it’s perfectly fair to wonder why they’ve been so reluctant to bring in a kicker to push him. If there’s legitimate concern about shaking his psyche, Loop probably isn’t going to be the guy for the long haul anyway.
You just hope Baltimore isn’t delaying the inevitable.
As Minter said, it boils down to Loop making kicks in games, and missing his first try of the preseason only ratchets up the scrutiny for these next couple summer games and beyond.
