What makes Justin Tucker the best kicker in the league

Justin Tucker, place kicker for the Baltimore Ravens, is arguably the GOAT in his position. Since coming into the leauge in 2012, he holds practically every single NFL kicking record. Most Field Goals (FG) made (350), best overall field goal percentage (90.9%), best FG accuracy from 50+ yards (72%), furthermore, he is the only kicker in NFL history to have multiple game winning FG’s of 60+ yards. With one from 66 yards being an NFL record (sadly, being against my Detroit Lions). Crazy to think that if he stays healthy, hes got many more record breaking years left in the leauge.

For a position, that fans often question the legitimacy of, and even seem to think is fairly easy. I would argue that, next to the cornerback, it is one of the most mentally challanging positions on the field.

Put yourself in their position for a second. With the game clock in its dying seconds, you, the kicker are called onto the field. The offense has just fought tooth and nail to get the ball into your field goal range, and is now relying on you to send them home with a win. The pressure of your teams expectations pale in comparison to the 100,000+ viewers ready to crucify you on social media if you miss. You need to hold your composure, and within a matter of seconds you need to send a ball flying 50+ yards in wind, rain or snow. All the while, moutain sized men bullrush you, and if they land on you wrong could probably flatten your kicking leg. To be able to go into those conditions weekly, and still nail the kick consistently from all parts of the field, and giving your team that win, takes some serious mental fortitude.

Every kicker that comes into the leauge can be considered elite, and posseses the physical ability to smack the pigskin from 60+ yards on any given day. What seperates Justin Tucker from the rest are his mental skills. High performance is a two sided coin, with physicality being on one side, and the mentalilty being the other. What seprates the good from the great is their ability to master and control what sits between their ears.

Here are some of the mental skills Justin Tucker displays that, in my opinion, have gotten him into the greatest of all time conversation for his positon.

He utilizes a growth mindset

Growth mindset, a term coined by Standford Professor Carol Dweck “… describes people who believe that their success depends on time and effort.” Individuals with a growth mindset don’t settle for the cards they are dealt, instead they see them as a starting point and have confidence in their ability to grow. They seek out challanges, learn from criticism, and focus on what productive steps they can take now to get better.

During the 2011 offseason, Justin had gone undrafted and was trying to make his way into the leauge. After impressing the special teams coordinator for the Ravens, Jerry Rosburg. Justin got a once in a lifetime opportunity, and was taken on as an undrafted free agent for the team, and was called upon to attend the rookie camp. There he met with Randy Brown, the ravens kicking consultant. Brown, as tucker describes, spent the next two hours critiquing many parts of Tucker’s kicking form. Criticism at this rate, especially to a kicker who was fairly successful in his collegiate career, can tear down morale. Tucker had one of two options, take the criticism and grow, or stay fixed in his current form and refuse to learn. As you can guess, he did the former. He took the advice given to him, and applied it to his kicks the very next day. After making the changes, Tucker described the changes to his kicks, saying“I just felt like I had command over the ball, something every kicker chases.”

This is the growth mindset at work ladies and gentleman. Rather than believing that his technique, that had gotten him thus far, was too ingrained to change, he put in time and effort to get better. It ended up earning him a spot on the 2012 roster over the teams veteran kicker.

He has an obsessive work ethic

All individuals coming into the NFL have the talent, physical abilities, and the know hows' to reach their goal. Regardless, it is often the person that works consistently and gives a 110% every time that wins out. The obsessive drive needed to be the best in your position requires an equally, all consuming, work ethic to make it possible.

In highschool, Tucker was already impressing scouts with his leg. However, it was his work ethic that propelled him into a spot on a college footbal team. In an interview, Justin spoke about how he was so eager to get into the NCAA that he spent the summer of his junior year taking extra classes in community college in order to graduate a semester early.

“I was like, I’m going to get there as quickly as I can,” he says. “The more I can do before the football season starts, the better chance I have to play on Week 1.” To leave your highschool a semester early, especially your senior year, takes some serious drive and sacrifice.

“The more I can do before the football season starts, the better chance I have to play on Week 1.”

The need to win at all costs, and be better than the rest, requires the work ethic to outwork talent that’s sitting at the same level as you. It’s this relentless pursuit to get to his goal that has helped him seperate from the pack.

He focuses on his weakness

In a society where people will show off their best angles, and keep hush about their shortcomings, it is rare to have individuals double down and work on their weaknesses. Rather than focusing on just their strengths, Tucker and other great athletes, find ways to improve on their weaknesses and elevate their overall game.

Three years into the leauge, Tucker already had multiple season of ~90% FG accuracy to his name (for those who don’t watch the NFL, this is very good). However, 2015 was a low point in his career. While still boasting a respectable 82% field goal percentage, he missed 4 out of 10 field goals from 50+ yards. Which accounted for 6 of his 7 misses that year. A noticable chink in his armour.

So what did he do? He doubled down on his efforts and put his growth mindset and work ethic to use to figure out what he was doing wrong. During the off season, he studied the film of a fellow kicker, stephen gostowski, one of the best long range kickers at the time.

“Stephen was absolutely outperforming me,” Tucker said, “and his style was unique at the time…and I just applied this new technique, the Gostkowski technique, and I don’t think I’d ever hit a ball as far in my life.”

Being willing to learn from his competition, tinker with his long standing kicking routine shows humility, speaks to his work ethic, and is a prime example of utilizing the growth mindset to work on his weakness. He saw another kicker performing better than him, and rather than letting his ego get in the way; he used his efforts to get better and improve.

The next year (2016), he had one of the best, if not the best season by a kicker in NFL history. He was a perfect 10-10 when kicking from 50+ yards. He made an astonishing 38-39 kicks that year. With his only miss being a blocked field goal. Finishing that season with an absurd field goal perecntage of 97.4%.

Conclusion

While the positon of the place kicker in the NFL is mostly ridiculed, it can be argued that it is one of the most mentally demanding positions on the gridiron. To be a good kicker, believing that you are the one who can get your team the “W” in the dying seconds, requires endless confidence. However, to be a great kicker you also need a healthy dose of humility, so when things don’t go your way you can learn from others and improve on your weak points.

Justin Tucker exmplifies what it means to be a high performer. He may be on equal footing with his competition when it comes to physical prowess, however, it is his mental fortitude, work ethic, and humility that set him apart and make him the GOAT at his position.

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