The Ravens signed Justin Tucker to a four-year extension Monday, rewarding the All-Professional kicker with an NFL-best deal that he mentioned “will greater than be certain that I might be a Raven for all times.”
Tucker’s deal, which extends his contract by 2027, will preserve him because the league’s highest-paid kicker. The contract is price $24 million, or $6 million yearly, and contains $17.5 million assured and an $11.5 million signing bonus, in line with ESPN.
“I really feel past blessed,” Tucker, 32, mentioned after Monday’s coaching camp follow. “I’m fired up, I’m motivated — all of the issues that I used to be feeling earlier than I signed, however … perhaps slightly bit extra after placing pen to paper. However no, I’m fired up. I’m blessed. I do know that I get to come back to work at a tremendous place with superb individuals. We get to proceed engaged on constructing one thing nice and dealing towards championships. Simply to know that I might be within the plans for precisely that makes me really feel very particular.”
Tucker’s deal got here collectively rapidly. He recalled joking to teach John Harbaugh at a current follow that an extension may very well be finalized “in, like, 5 minutes. And certain sufficient, it took about 5 minutes.” The extension was introduced only a week after the Pittsburgh Steelers signed Chris Boswell to a four-year, $20 million contract extension, which tied Tucker’s contract for annual common worth.
“You knew it was going to occur,” Harbaugh mentioned Monday. He praised Tucker not just for his kicking capacity but in addition for being “the sort of chief he's, the man he's to be round, simply being out right here, the mindset that he takes when it comes to his work ethic, additionally his humorousness, his understanding of the second. … We’re comfortable to have him again.”
Stated Tucker: “What was and continues to be most essential to me is simply being within the plans for constructing a championship and feeling valued as part of that course of. So, hear, this deal, for certain, checks all of the containers for me. And for all intents and functions, that is the kind of deal that can greater than be certain that I might be a Raven for all times. And for that alone, I couldn’t be extra comfortable.”
Tucker’s extension comes after a powerful 2021 season, throughout which he led the NFL in field-goal accuracy (95.6%) and extra-point accuracy (100%). Tucker transformed two game-winning subject targets, together with 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 time beyond regulation field-goal makes an attempt.
Tucker, a five-time Professional Bowl and first-team All-Professional choice, is essentially the most correct kicker in league historical past and among the many greatest-ever specialists. In a current ESPN survey of consultants, reporters and analysts, former New England Patriots and Indianapolis Colts kicker Adam Vinatieri simply edged Tucker in voting on one of the best participant in NFL historical past on the place.
Tucker has made 91.1% of his profession field-goal makes an attempt, 99% of his extra-point makes an attempt and is the primary kicker in NFL historical past to register a minimum of 130 factors in six straight seasons. Since 2012, Tucker ranks first within the NFL in subject targets made (326) and factors (1,360). His 1,360 factors scored are additionally essentially the most within the first 10 seasons of a profession in NFL historical past.
When he was requested after a coaching camp follow Sunday about his probability of constructing the Professional Soccer Corridor of Fame, Tucker disregarded the suggestion and praised his teammates.
“I actually strive not to consider that stuff,” he mentioned. “I actually attempt to make it some extent to take it one kick at a time. That’s one thing that I heard from my agent popping out of faculty, and it’s a few of the greatest recommendation I’ve ever gotten, proper subsequent to my grandfather once I was attempting out for the highschool varsity group at Westlake [High School] in Austin [Texas]. He mentioned, ‘Justin, simply kick the rattling ball.’ …
“My focus is way more on simply taking it one kick at a time, one follow at a time, one recreation at a time. … They’re not even simply saying it about me; they’re saying it about us; they’re saying it about what the Ravens’ specialists and their coaches have been capable of put collectively, as an entire, collectively. So, sure, I give it some thought as, ‘Oh, that’s good,’ however I’ve nonetheless received to take it one kick at a time, and there's a lot extra than simply me kicking the ball.”
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