Yahoo Sports’ Jason Fitz, senior NFL writer Frank Schwab and senior NFL reporter Jori Epstein discuss why the Baltimore Ravens made the “football decision” to release kicker Justin Tucker. Hear the full conversation on “Inside Coverage” – and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you listen.
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Video Transcript
This is just business for the Ravens and like you kind of alluded to, they’ve dealt with this before, and I think their playbook from day one was, we’re just going to dance around this and we’re just going to keep calling it football decisions.
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And to be fair, Justin Tucker gave them an out by not being very good last season.
I mean, there was a point last season where we were all openly wondering, I think he’s going to have to cut Justin Tucker and find a new kicker.
That’s how much of a slump he was in.
So I think the Ravens just look.
this this is just business and it was very cold.
I mean, when they’re talking about putting football decisions is like you mentioned like the 4th and 5th words in their statement, it’s done for a reason.
There’s a lot of lawyers involved, let’s put it that way.
There you go.
You’re right, you’re right and you knew and we just, we all just smirked and kind of like, uh, it’s, it’s kind of gross in some ways, but in the other, I get it.
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It’s just business, and they had the CYA here and that’s what they’ve been doing.
They’re gonna basically skate from this without ever having to really deal with the allegations against Justin Tucker because they knew the game plan all along.
They’re like, we’re gonna keep saying, hey, we’re just going to make a football decision, we got to make a football decision, we got to make a football decision.
You draft a kicker.
Afterwards, you say, well, this’s a tough football decision, but we get so that you look back and they’re like, well, we just said it was a football decision the whole way.
Look at Justin Tucker really struggled last season.
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So whatever, and I, I hate talking about like the, the stuff Justin Tucker’s alleged with and being like, oh, well, his football legacy, but I, I just, I am stunned by, if you would have asked us last last September, if we were all together talking about, hey, we’re just gonna have a discussion about who’s the greatest of all time in each position, we would have gotten a kicker and then like, You know what?
Justin Tucker is probably the greatest kicker in NFL history.
And, and none of us would have like argued that much.
Maybe you say Adam Berry or something, but Justin Tucker was considered at that point, the greatest kicker, one of the top 2 or 3 in NFL history, Hall of Fame and all this kind of stuff.
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And to go from that to where we are now is just, it’s honestly staggering.
It is just the, the allegations.
I mean, him struggling for the half of football season really doesn’t matter, but He’s basically gonna be persona non grata for for the rest of time now.
I mean, when the Ravens have, you know, uh, reunions for their 2012 championship team, is Justin Tucker gonna get invited?
Stuff like that where you’re just like, and he’s brought a lot of this on himself.
I’m not trying to make him into a victim, trust me, but you’re gonna look back and say, wow, his fall from grace was one of the, the swiftest we’ve ever seen in NFL.