ExtremeRavens Posted 10 hours ago Posted 10 hours ago Tyler Loop took a moment to gather all the details in his head. It was Week 4. His Arizona team was playing at Utah, a temperate September Saturday in Salt Lake City last fall; around 87 degrees at kickoff, with an 8 mph wind at his back; in a stadium roughly 4,600 feet above sea level. The conditions were perfect, Loop said, a smile ripping across his face. So he started messing around in warmups. “I hit an 83-yarder,” he laughed. That won’t happen in a game anytime soon, by Loop or any other kicker. But that kind of drive through the ball is the reason Baltimore drafted a kicker for the first time in the organization’s history. And it’s why his name won’t get lost in the early season discourse of this brave new world for NFL kickers. In each of the first two weeks, teams have combined to make five kicks from at least 55 yards. Those marks are tied for the second most in a single week out of 431 weeks since 2000, according to TruMedia. Through all of last season, there were only two weeks in which kickers made five tries from longer than 55 yards. Kickers have inched back a yard at a time over the last quarter-century. In 1970, Tom Dempsey, a placekicker born without toes on his right foot who booted the ball straight-toe style, set what was thought to be an unbreakable record. His 63-yard make stood for over 40 years. Then in 2013, Matt Prater — with the same leg that delivered a knockout blow to Baltimore two weeks ago — sank a 64-yarder. Embattled former Raven Justin Tucker holds the league record, having fit a ball through the uprights from 66 yards in 2021 against the Detroit Lions. The Dallas Cowboys’ Brandon Aubrey drilled one from 65 yards in 2024 and 64 last week to force overtime in a win against the New York Giants. The horsepower in legs around the league, like Aubrey’s flirtation with history and Cam Little, who hit from 70 in a preseason game, coupled with the collective uptick in distance kicking to begin this season, leads one to believe that we’re on the precipice of a record-breaking effort. “I think it’s coming,” Loop said. “I wouldn’t be surprised. You get a good day, probably in the first four or five weeks of the season, outdoors on some good grass. Good breeze. Good wind. It could happen.” That’s thanks to a new NFL rule that allows specialists to better tailor a football to their liking. They’re called “K-balls.” In principle, they’re similar to the way quarterbacks muddy up a football to their liking. The Ravens were one of seven teams that introduced this resolution to the league and were responsible for the change. For years, specialists ripped open a fresh box of footballs on Sundays and were granted only 30 minutes to break the ball in. That prep time increased to an hour in 2020, the year before Tucker’s record-setting boot. Christmas comes early now. Teams received a big box of 60 footballs before training camp with ample time to massage it to their liking. Officials get three check-ins to be sure they’re up to code but, “You know what you’re gonna get before you get out there,” Stout said. “That just takes a stressor away on game day.” Surprisingly, Loop doesn’t have much preference in how to break the ball in. Neither does Stout. The specialists in Baltimore will walk into a meeting, chat briefly about which football feels up to snuff, then Stout will kick it over to their long snapper, “Hey Nick, you got this, brother.” Nick Moore is the veteran in the room. He signed with Baltimore as an undrafted rookie the year the NFL expanded the pregame time to mess with a football and he was the long snapper for Tucker’s record kick. Loop called him “an expert.” Baltimore’s K-ball is a little less pointy. It’s a little thicker in the middle. The nubs of a football that help a quarterback’s grip get scraped off for sake of air resistance. Loop used his hands to model the softer seams, imagining the moment a foot makes contact and the whole ball compresses then jumps out. But he doesn’t like to overdo it. Too much time spent breaking in a ball and it “loses its tack and it’s a little too slippery.” Such maniacal thinking about the texture of a leather ball has helped Loop find success in the dawn of his NFL career. He’s landed all four of his field goal attempts thus far, the longest try being from 52 yards — his professional debut swing. The rookie’s only miss came on an extra point try that backfired in Baltimore’s one-point loss to Buffalo. Before that, Loop made a 61-yarder during the preseason. Stout said that he’s seen the Trackman clock as far as 78 in practice. Loop pointed out that the difference between the broken-in ball and one from their practice bag is maybe 2-to-3 yards. A bit of wiggle room plus the adrenaline of game day and perhaps Loop could push a ball 67 yards. “If the opportunity is there,” Stout said, “I’d love to see him break the record.” The odds of Ravens coach John Harbaugh sending out Loop for a 65-plus-yard field goal are slim. If it’s earlier in the game, he’d likely opt to punt and avoid giving up such favorable field position. Harbaugh is also working with an offense that boasts the fourth-most yards per play (9.0) through two games. Other teams around the league might soften their third-down play calling knowing that they can rely on a longer kick. For Loop and the Ravens, it would take the right conditions. But would Harbaugh consider it? “As it gets to be more of a meaningful number,” he said, “as you get later in the game where you need the points, heck yes. You could put [Loop] back there.” Have a news tip? Contact Sam Cohn at scohn@baltsun.com, 410-332-6200 and x.com/samdcohn. View the full article Quote
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