By John Turney
The Kansas City Chiefs signed former Ravens placekicker Justin Tucker to their practice squad on Wednesday giving them an experienced alternative behind Harrison Butker.
Butker, Kansas City's kicker since 2017 and a key piece of three Super Bowl teams, has converted just 11 of 16 field goals (68.8 percent) through six games, including only 2 of 6 from 50 yards or longer. He has also missed an extra point.
The Chiefs worked out several kickers this week; Tucker made all 30 of his attempts in the session per media reports.
Tucker, 36, last played in 2024. He spent 2025 serving a 10-game suspension under the NFL's personal conduct policy after allegations of sexual misconduct from 16 massage therapists involving incidents from 2012 to 2016.
He was not charged, called the allegations "unequivocally false," did not appeal, and served the suspension as a free agent. The Ravens released him in May 2025. Andy Reid said the Chiefs did their due diligence before signing him.
Tucker went undrafted out of Texas in 2012 and quickly established himself as one of the most reliable kickers of his era. Over 13 seasons and 212 games with the Ravens, he made 417 of 468 field goals (89.1 percent) and 524 of 532 extra points (98.5 percent) for 1,775 points. He is the franchise's all-time leading scorer and, as a rookie, contributed two field goals in Super Bowl XLVII.
Era-adjusted metrics from Football Perspective, the late Rupert Patrick (author and member of Pro Football Researchers Association), and NFLGSIS consistently place Tucker a clear step ahead of his peers and farther ahead of previous generations than raw percentages alone suggest.
For most of his prime, he ranked at or near the top of all-time field-goal accuracy among kickers with substantial volume. He is currently second or third depending on the exact cutoff, with Cameron Dicker holding a higher percentage on fewer attempts. Modern kickers post higher raw numbers overall, but Tucker's sustained excellence over more than a decade still stands out.
He earned five first-team All-Pro selections (2013, 2016, 2018, 2019, 2021), three second-team nods, seven Pro Bowls, and a spot on the 2010s All-Decade Team. Peak seasons included 97.4 percent in 2016 (38 of 39) and a league-leading 94.6 percent in 2021. He was the fastest kicker to 1,000 career points and to 300 field goals.
Clutch numbers were strong: high conversion rates in the second half and overtime, long fourth-quarter/overtime streaks, and multiple game-winners.In September 2021, he set the then-NFL record with a 66-yard field goal as time expired to beat the Lions. That mark stood until November 2025, when Jacksonville's Cam Little made from 67 and 68 yards.
Tucker was also effective from 50-plus (64 of 96, 66.7 percent). But that was then. things changed pretty quickly.
His final season in Baltimore was his worst: 22 of 30 field goals (73.3 percent) and a career-low extra-point percentage. That decline, combined with the suspension, ended his long run as the Ravens' kicker.
How do we rank or rate players? And specifically kickers?
Volume, longevity, peak accuracy, All-Pro recognition, and clutch moments put Tucker above most kickers in NFL history. The era-adjusted metrics are particularly decisive: Football Perspective and Patrick's work show him further ahead of his contemporaries than most earlier kickers were of theirs.
Recently inducted Adam Vinatieri, for example, was not much above average for his era by the same measures, yet clutch kicks and career totals carried him. Morten Andersen had a big leg but was less accurate than Nick Lowery, who has little Hall of Fame traction. Those metrics may not weigh as heavily with voters as traditional volume and narrative moments.
Time will tell. When it comes to being Gold Jacket time, his likely lack of super-elite counting numbers won't reach Vinatieri, unless Tucker has a strong comeback. But his sexual misconduct allegations, though they are not supposed to, may also be a roadblock.
If Butker's struggles continue, the Chiefs have one of the more decorated kickers of the modern era available one whose Baltimore years remain one of the strongest, if not the strongest, sustained runs by a placekicker in the last two decades, even if the later decline and off-field suspension complicate the full picture.
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