{"id":241943,"date":"2025-07-28T05:19:17","date_gmt":"2025-07-28T05:19:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/241943\/"},"modified":"2025-07-28T05:19:17","modified_gmt":"2025-07-28T05:19:17","slug":"justin-tucker-is-gone-will-that-fix-the-ravens-special-teams","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/241943\/","title":{"rendered":"Justin Tucker is gone. Will that fix the Ravens’ special teams?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The NFL\u2019s offseason investigation into kicker Justin Tucker\u2019s alleged inappropriate sexual behavior<\/a> obscured some of the Ravens\u2019 other special teams issues last year.<\/p>\n

Now, almost two months after Tucker was cut<\/a>, coordinator Chris Horton has a lot to fix as training camp marches on.<\/p>\n

The Ravens ranked 23rd in the NFL last season in overall special teams efficiency, according to FTN,<\/a> by far the team\u2019s lowest ranking since 2011. Over the previous four seasons, they had never finished lower than third. Horton\u2019s group lacked a reliable strength, as only two of the Ravens\u2019 units \u2014 kick returns and punt coverage \u2014 finished in the top half of the league in FTN\u2019s defense-adjusted value over average metric. <\/p>\n

Those struggles cost them in some painful defeats<\/a>. They were also a surprise, given John Harbaugh\u2019s background. Before he was hired as the Ravens\u2019 head coach in 2008, he\u2019d served as a special teams coordinator for four teams in college and the NFL, including a nine-year stint with the Philadelphia Eagles. In Baltimore, he helped turn special teams into a defining factor in the Ravens\u2019 success, not a flaw.<\/p>\n

Now Harbaugh and Horton have to rebuild the unit all over again. The Ravens not only have to replace Tucker, the most accurate kicker in NFL history and a longtime team icon, but also linebackers Chris Board and Malik Harrison, who led the unit in special teams snaps last season before signing elsewhere this offseason. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe still have guys in the building that understand the standard and that understand the expectations of what we\u2019re looking for,\u201d Horton said after practice Saturday. \u201cSo, as long as you have a select few guys \u2014 and, yes, we did lose some guys \u2014 but with young guys, they don\u2019t know any better. So you\u2019ve got an opportunity to really mold those guys into what you want them to be.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf they listen, and they learn and they grow on the way, they\u2019re going to be playing at the standard faster than what we think. But they\u2019re young guys. They don\u2019t know the system. All they know is, like, \u2018All right, what is Coach saying?\u2019 Then we have video, and we have proof of what it looks like on tape from the past.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some adjustments might carry over from late last season. Running back Keaton Mitchell could be the favorite to start at kickoff returner, especially if he continues to show he\u2019s regained the athleticism he lost after a 2023 knee injury. Mitchell returned five kicks for an average of 31.2 yards last season. <\/p>\n

\u201cThose running back body types, they\u2019re used to bouncing off tacklers,\u201d Horton said. \u201cSo it allowed for that type of player to really have success back there. I believe a guy with some toughness, a guy that\u2019s going to run with speed, with vision, he\u2019s going to have success back there for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

At punt returner, wide receiver LaJohntay Wester, a sixth-round pick, could prove dangerous. At Colorado last year, he returned nine punts for 108 yards and a touchdown, averaging 12 yards a return.<\/p>\n

But most of the focus in camp has been on the kickers. Before Tucker was released, the Ravens drafted Tyler Loop in the sixth round, and he\u2019s proven why. He\u2019s been flawless in training camp, making all 23 field goal attempts<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Running back Keaton Mitchell catches the opening kickoff during the Ravens\u2019 playoff loss at Buffalo last season. (Ulysses Mu\u00f1oz\/The Baltimore Banner)<\/p>\n

The Ravens also brought in John Hoyland, an undrafted rookie, to compete for the job. He\u2019s missed two of his 18 attempts across three days of training camp, and his kicks seems to have less power than Loop\u2019s. <\/p>\n

\u201cFrom kicking, the technical standpoint, it\u2019s about kicking the right way, kicking a straight ball,\u201d Horton said. \u201cWe want the ball to be straight every time, and that\u2019s what we\u2019re working for, and that\u2019s been a big improvement since the spring. I think both guys have gotten a lot better at doing it.\u201d <\/p>\n

Horton said he expects both Loop and Hoyland to play in the Ravens\u2019 three preseason games, the first coming Aug. 7 against the Indianapolis Colts. The Ravens could declare a winner in the kicking battle before their Aug. 23 preseason finale. <\/p>\n

The hope in Baltimore is that, after a chaotic past year, the Ravens\u2019 special teams will return to form. They already have sure-thing starters in punter Jordan Stout and long snapper Nick Moore. Can they figure out the rest in time for Week 1?<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought this spring we got after the fundamentals,\u201d Horton said. \u201cWe started to build the standard and the expectations for what we want as Ravens special teams. We are just going to bring these guys along, and I\u2019m looking forward to having each and every one of these guys develop and continue to grow as we continue this training camp and into those preseason games.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The NFL\u2019s offseason investigation into kicker Justin Tucker\u2019s alleged inappropriate sexual behavior obscured some of the Ravens\u2019 other…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":241944,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2052],"tags":[115,184,117,2282,215,214,422,7,6,359,4781,169],"class_list":{"0":"post-241943","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-baltimore-ravens","8":"tag-afc","9":"tag-baltimore","10":"tag-baltimore-ravens","11":"tag-baltimoreravens","12":"tag-bills","13":"tag-buffalo","14":"tag-divisional-round","15":"tag-football","16":"tag-nfl","17":"tag-playoffs","18":"tag-postseason","19":"tag-ravens"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114929176927114507","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241943","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=241943"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241943\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/241944"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=241943"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=241943"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=241943"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}