Tyler Loop & Randy Brown Talk About Big Kicks in Cleveland, How Loop Became the Ravens' Guy, the Mechanics of Kicking, And More

Ravens rookie kicker Tyler Loop talks about dealing with the Cleveland wind, wanting a game-winning kick, how he landed in Baltimore, handling replacing Justin Tucker, and much more.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:04):
Welcome into Lounge presented by DraftKings. I'm Ryan Ink here
with Garrett Downing and we are thrilled to sit down
with kicker Tyler Loop and Ravens kicking coach Randy Brown.
Thank you guys for joining us. We've been looking to
have you on for a little while now. Glad to
make it happen.

Speaker 2 (00:18):
And Tyler, I'll start with you.

Speaker 1 (00:20):
So, as we all know, you know, you're learning a
lot during your rookie season, that's kind of part of it.
And you know, cold, windy Cleveland great place to learn things.
And as we saw, you learned a very important lesson
of how to put on a jacket with no sleeves.
Oh yeah, yeah, tell us about that.

Speaker 3 (00:39):
Uh.

Speaker 4 (00:40):
I I was never fortunate enough in college and we
had cold games to get one of those, and I thought,
I mean I genuinely I was sitting there like trying
to put my arms through and I couldn't find it.
And then I saw the pocket and I was like, oh,
I'm an idiot.

Speaker 1 (00:56):
So just yeah, that's what the vets are there for, right,
the coach on these kind of things.

Speaker 4 (01:00):
Yeah, but you know, sometimes you just gotta let it happen.
You get gold on a camera.

Speaker 5 (01:05):
So not too many cold games in Arizona, I'm sure.

Speaker 4 (01:10):
Yeah, not not too many, but we had a few.
We went and played, like Washington State up and Pullman
playing at University Washington, Oregon. Like those games in Utah
it's cold as well, but that's pretty nice weather yice.

Speaker 1 (01:25):
But I mean, in all seriousness, those are those are
tough conditions. Sunday in Cleveland, very difficult place to kick.
You make all three of your your field goals, both
your extra points, just you know, make a clutch forty
four yard er late in the fourth quarter to tie
the game up. Just how good did it feel to
knock down those kicks in that environment?

Speaker 4 (01:43):
That was good. You know, we talked a lot. I
mean from the day I got here, was all about like,
you know, the first eight nine weeks this season, like
you'll be fine. But the one that we got to
prepare for is the back half of the season when
you're playing in Cleveland and in Cincinnati and Pittsburgh and
those you know, those places where weather's pretty unpredictable. It's

(02:06):
me windy, it's me cold. So you know, we we
were working on hitting a ball that survives at weather
in April in May when we first got here, so
you know, going out and doing it that was fun.

Speaker 1 (02:20):
Right, So this is almost like this Cleveland game was
like the start of the season for you in some
ways pretty much.

Speaker 2 (02:25):
Wow, that's interesting.

Speaker 5 (02:26):
I was watching the two of you guys during warm
ups and it was really windy, and warm ups it
actually felt like the wind died off a touch as
the game went along, maybe, but in warm ups, like
it almost looked like you were hitting some like you
were playing into the wind at times. I'm just curious
how you felt during warm ups and also, Randy, could
you walk us through like when it's a really windy

(02:47):
you're so regimented about, like what you do during these
pregame warmups, what that process is to get used to
kicking in that type of environment.

Speaker 6 (02:57):
First of all, it's an honor to be here on
the lounge after eighteen years here at the Ravens have
a chance to sit with you two gentlemen on the lamb.

Speaker 2 (03:07):
Finally begged you, and you finally said.

Speaker 6 (03:09):
Yeh, finally eighteen years of asking, and I finally relent
it and I appreciate it.

Speaker 5 (03:13):
Yeah, your door.

Speaker 6 (03:16):
You guys do a great job and part of our
social media team. Everything you guys are outstanding at. So
what we do is I've been fortunate enough to you know,
have coached probably twenty games in that stadium in Cleveland,
twenty some in Pittsburgh and Samon Cincinnati, and all I
can do is try to share my knowledge with with
the kicker, with Tyler, And what we were doing is

(03:40):
what you do is you kick the ball into different
areas and quadrants of the uprights to see how the
ball reacts. So then that way, as the game's going on,
you can see to your point the speed of which
the wind is. That determines then where his target line
is going to be. So his target line will change
depending on what the wind is, because you're right, there

(04:00):
was some some some of that wind or in pregame
was you know, we have a thing him and I say,
is we never want to give the uprights away, meaning
we never want to kick a ball outside the uprights,
because if you're in that situation and the wind has died,
and as strong as he kicks the ball, that ball
stays straight, that ball misses the upright. So we try
to keep everything inside the uprights. So he was experimenting

(04:21):
we were experimenting with the lean. We were experimenting with
where he's making foot the ball contact and then where
the target was. And that's what you were seeing. And
you know, it's funny because you see from the outside
and some people covering is oh so and so missed
this in pregame, or so and so only hit from
this far. All pregame really is is just an experimental
mental time for us in windy situations.

Speaker 5 (04:44):
Do you come out of pregame and look at the
Cleveland game, Like do you come out of there feeling like, Okay,
I've got a feel for this, or do you come
out of it feeling like, all right, it's going to
be kind of dicey today because this is a windy situation,
Like how do you leave pregame feeling about what the
impact is going to be on a game?

Speaker 4 (05:00):
Uh? So, Like he said, pregames all about experimenting, but
it's also like getting ready. So one thing that Nick
and Jordan have really helped me with is talking about
using pregame as like just knowing that you're ready. So
when I'm out there kicking off the sticks or the
tee and or when he's holding for me, that's when

(05:20):
we're experimenting, trying to get a feel of the wind,
and we'll get a pretty good one of that. But
then when I kick with Nick and Jordan, that whole
process is just to say like like, hey, I know
I've done these kicks, like I'm ready to go. So
by the end of pregame, like typically where you know,
we know because we do it every day in practice,
we do it, you know, every pregame. It's the same regiment,

(05:44):
and so by the end of that we're like, yeah,
we're ready.

Speaker 1 (05:47):
I heard your hat blew off or something as you
were going to the game.

Speaker 4 (05:50):
Yeah. Yeah, I like walked out of the hotel and
I was walking up to the bus and I had
a hat on backwards and it just like flew off,
and I think it literally made like twenty yards and
a gentleman like ran and got it for me, and
I was like, dude, thanks so much. I get in
the bus and Harv's like, h you saw that.

Speaker 2 (06:10):
So it's going to be interesting today.

Speaker 4 (06:12):
Let's go.

Speaker 6 (06:13):
Well, if you guys remember the last two three weeks
we've had here has been so windy, right, and you know,
we have the best practice facility in the National Football League.
I've said it, but what it does is that gives
us real life conditions out back. So I frustrated him
a little bit this week and we kicked a lot

(06:33):
of balls into the wind side winds, and you know,
I think that one day we're out there how to
be twenty five thirty miles per hour when we were
going into it. But what it does is that he
does such a really good job in you want to
take your we call it the apex. We want to
take that apex and be able to move it up
and down, which there's not many skilled kickers around the
NFL who have the ability to change the height of

(06:56):
which they kick a ball.

Speaker 1 (06:57):
And that's to you know, if the winds are swilling
up high and keep it lower to keep it out
of the wind and whatnot.

Speaker 6 (07:02):
Absolutely, and you know, and there's sometimes you know, we
don't mind having a good apex because that means he's
really struck the ball well. But it was a lot
of experimenting, a lot of frustration at times from him,
but we had a good time with it and he
learned a lot. And no matter what you say about
where we play in the AFC, North, yes, Pittsburgh, Cleveland

(07:23):
and since anator tough places to play in all my years,
kicking at the bank is the hardest place in National
Football League.

Speaker 2 (07:30):
Kick a for Why is it? So?

Speaker 6 (07:32):
It's undergone changes obviously esthetically which has been beautiful now,
but when you add all the screens and you close
off the four quadrants which we used to have open,
and then with us being so close to the harbor,
it's a changeable wind and now it's almost become a
swirling type wind. We're honestly, in pregame I kind of

(07:53):
laughed because the visiting kickers get in here and they
have no idea what they're doing. So when you think
of it, before Matt that game he hit like four
field goals when he played the Colts and they beat
us four over fifty We had gone almost seven eight
years where the opponent did not kick a field goal
over fifty yards in our stadium. And yeah, the poems
eight eight years were pom. Now lately we have been

(08:14):
a couple guys have hit it. Yeah, but it's really hard,
especially longer distance field.

Speaker 1 (08:17):
Do you love to free the nuggets at the bang
ker the field goal? I've got a lot of chicken
nuggets this way.

Speaker 6 (08:23):
We just got a lot of them. It's not a
great place to get well.

Speaker 1 (08:27):
I remember, Tyler, you know when when the Ravens first
drafted you, there were a lot of pundits out there
that talked about, well, he was from Arizona. You know,
he kicked in Arizona. How is he going to deal
with these weather conditions?

Speaker 2 (08:37):
You know, that was like one of the questions.

Speaker 1 (08:40):
So did this game and the week of practice leading
up to it, did it kind of prove something to you,
to both of you about like you know what you
know and you said you kicked in cold before, but
like that, yes, I can handle this being a kicker
for the Ravens in these kind of conditions.

Speaker 4 (08:56):
Yeah, I wouldn't say it proved anything we didn't already know.
I'd say it confirmed things we knew or yeah, well
I guess that's the same. How did I say you
knew like there weren't there weren't doubts of like we
are capable of doing this. It did just confirm like
for us we knew going into that, like that the ball,

(09:20):
the ball that we hit can can hold up in
that like you know, Arizona, it's it's warm, and it's
beautiful most of the year, but there's there's a season
we call it monsoon season, and I mean you'll have
days where there's these storms that are call them haboob
and they come through and it's like forty to fifty
mill in our winds and so we'll be out practicing

(09:41):
in that. So that like sets you up for the wind.
And then you know, growing up in Texas, like you
play playoff football and it's high twenties, low thirties, super
windy because Texa has nothing. So there's there's been a
lot of times where've kicking that weather. But there's also
just a confidence. It's like we use we use this

(10:01):
thing called track Man and tracks all. Like the metrics
has been an awesome tool for us. But one of
the things you see is like the ball speed and
the endover and rotation, Like you can kind of toy
around with what ball is gonna cut the wind really well,
and so that's been a good tool for us to
really figure out and just you know, like we we.

Speaker 1 (10:23):
Have this interesting so you can get it spinning faster
to cut through the wind better.

Speaker 6 (10:28):
Well, you don't want it spinning too fast because remember
the more revolutions the more the wind resistance hit it,
so you almost want to hit a little slower ball. Interest, Yeah,
we don't want to hit it high and fast because
then the wind gets to knock it down.

Speaker 4 (10:39):
Gotcha.

Speaker 6 (10:40):
And if we piggyback and go back to you know,
I coach in Chicago and the Chicago Bears, and I
was in Soldier Field before it was big, so you know,
I Jeff Jaeger, which you had to kick a lower ball,
you had to kick better trajectory ball, and this whole thing.
You know, coach arball and I've been together and I
think twenty one seasons now, and in Philadelphia we had
David Akers, a hard, hard place to kick at the link,

(11:02):
you know, and John always stressed just Randy, just teach
him to kick a straight ball. Teach him to kick
a straight ball. And all I ever did, all I've
ever coached was kicking a straight ball and win. So
I've coached in Chicago, Philadelphia, now in Baltimore in all
my years in the NFL. So when we were in
search of a new kicker, we had to just find
a guy who could strike a straight ball. So your

(11:25):
question was a good question. But I know there were
some people frustrated in April, May, June, July, and August
because we weren't out there bombing sixty yarders and I
had Tyler just kicking forty yarders. And you know, and
some of the pundits are like, well, they tried nine
field goals, but they were all under forty four. Well,
guess what this year, seventy nine percent of our kicks
have been under forty yards. And I think the extra

(11:46):
points now that we've moved him back to thirty three
yard field goals, they are they're thirty three yard field goals.
Call them what they are. So that ball has to
be struck differently than when used to be able to
kick an extra point from twenty yards. So our goal
was to find a guy who could kick a sh
straight ball. And I don't care where he played, because
he kicked a straight ball. And we've been working on
that ball. The ball we kicked on Sunday, It's the

(12:09):
ball we started on at rookie mini camp in May.

Speaker 5 (12:12):
I'm curious along those lines. So in terms of the
mechanics of it, and and I learned this about you
during your very first press conference right after you were
drafted and I could tell that you love talking like
the mechanics. You even said that when you were Randy
met during the pre Drave process, you kind of nerded
out over kicking mechanics and that that that type of thing.
So did you change How did you have to change
your swing at all to kick the straight ball? Was

(12:35):
it more just refining mechanics? Is just continuing what you're doing, Like,
walk me through that process.

Speaker 4 (12:39):
It's it's just a lot of refinement. Like we if
you go up and look in his office, we not
like first month, that office was just a whole drawing
board of like every ideas.

Speaker 6 (12:49):
Like Russell Crowe beautiful mind off.

Speaker 2 (12:52):
It was crazy.

Speaker 4 (12:54):
Yeah, I mean we we put up everything you can
think of on there. When it comes to just like
what do you need to achieve to hit that straight ball?
And we kind of narrowed it down like five objectives
by the end of OTAs and like football school and
really now every time we look at look at film,
like we just have a process that we look at
like how does the plant look? Actually, even going back further,

(13:17):
like the one thing that you can that's really in
your control as a kicker is how far you are
from the ball, and like we talked about it the
very first time, I was like, I if I'm at
one hundred fourteen to one hundred fifteen inches from the ball,
like that is my sweet spot. That's where I'm gonna
have the most control.

Speaker 2 (13:33):
Four Like that How precise that is?

Speaker 6 (13:37):
Well, you guys have seen us with the measurings with
the tape measures out there, right yeah, yeah, people have
written about it, but you just that's what our tool.
That that feel that makes him feel good?

Speaker 2 (13:47):
Whatever is all right?

Speaker 1 (13:48):
Go ahead, yes, sorry, you continue with the other the
other aspects of kicking a straight ball.

Speaker 4 (13:52):
So we know, like that's my athletically, that's just where
I'm most comfortable with. It's like, let's hit that first.
Next thing we want to do is make sure the
plant is the same distance, the same like direction pointing
straight down field to your target. Then you want to
match up foot position, and then we want to look for,

(14:14):
like we talked about a lot the swing plane. So
you never want to see you know, too early your
your foot kind of leave out of your left shoulder
in your finish downfield. And so now every time we
break down film, it's like if I had a straight ball,
chances are that all those objectives got checked off, and

(14:36):
so we just kind of became obsessed with that of
every time we went out and kicked, it was like, okay, steps,
plant football swing, steps plant football swing, And that was
just and even even now, I guess all we look
at and.

Speaker 6 (14:49):
We still do. I mean, and for everybody who's watching
and listening that you've played baseball all right, or you've
played played golf. When you play baseball, you pretty much
put your feet in the same exact spot in the
batters box. You don't each time you go up change
it and like, oh, maybe I'll try this this time.
When you're playing golf, your your distance is about the same.
You're put your playing the ball, maybe off your inside foot,
maybe the middle, maybe the back where it's each different

(15:11):
club has a different shot. So what I love about
him is his ability to be technical but not be technical.
We always call proalysis by analysis. He's not so overly
technical that before each kick he's nerding out in his mind. No,
we have these these principles that we kick by, and
we've dived done with all Mike, all the kickers we've had.

(15:33):
You have your principle going in this is what works
for us, because there is going to be days where
your body doesn't feel right, you know, or maybe listen,
maybe just had a bad day, maybe he didn't sleep
well that night and the body just doesn't feel right.
So what do we do? We have to go back
to what are we successful? This is where we plant,
This is where we hit the ball, This is where

(15:53):
we swing. Are we hitting the ball in our fourth
lace or our third lace today? Are we hitting the
ball a little higher than our fourth lace? What are
we doing?

Speaker 5 (15:59):
I want to go through the draft process, and this
is the big joke during the process leading into the
draft was where in the world is Randy Brown? You
were all over the place.

Speaker 3 (16:08):
You're looking at all.

Speaker 5 (16:09):
These kickers, and so that was your assignment. Even we
talked to Eric Tacosta soon after the draft, and he
even made the point that like, look I scout like
I'm a I'm not a kicking scout. Like I really
leaned on Randy in this regard. So first of all,
how big of I guess how much pressure did you
feel to find the right guy in that process? To

(16:31):
as you were going through, Like how much pressure did
you feel? Like I got to nail this thing.

Speaker 6 (16:36):
I'm going to go back to when I start with it.
Pressure wise, I was mayor of my town for twelve years,
a job that I loved and I held. I had
fifty thousand people in my town. I dealt with way.
I dealt with death. I dealt with murders. I dealt
with suicides. I dealt with people who couldn't turn our
electrical on, the people whose young sons or young daughters

(16:58):
odeed in their bathroom. I dealt with some real life issues,
and it really has changed the way that I look
at sports and the way that I coach football. I
don't feel pressure. I don't feel pressure during games. I
don't feel pressure during practice, and I sure s I
didn't feel pressure in trying to find, you know, who
the next kicker was. In dealing with real life issues

(17:19):
like I like I've had to deal with. It puts
a different perspective on sports. That's saying it was such
a great challenge. I loved every minute of it, and
I love the autonomy that that that Harbes and Eric
and George and Marc Essevedo and our whole team here
were able to give me. Not only do I run

(17:39):
the special showcase with my son Tyler, who's a specially
assistant in Philadelphia, but the ability to go out to
the Big twelve Pro Day, which he didn't show up
because he was too important to show big time the
Big Fell Pro Day.

Speaker 4 (17:54):
I did what I needed to do.

Speaker 6 (17:56):
I was forced to go to spend a couple of
days Tucson in Phoenix. It's such a shame. It was
just awful. So you know, I was lucky enough to
see him at the Specialist Showcase. I probably worked out
thirty kickers. I probably interviewed about thirty to forty on
the phone or in person. And the one kick that

(18:19):
stands out is worth a special showcase, which we've turned
it into a competition now, and so each each team
has seven specialists, eight specialists on each team. And you
were playing for Bones's team. Bones Fossil, who's the coach
of Titans, was playing against my son's team. So he
goes ahead and his team's down by one. This is

(18:39):
in Indianapolis, in front of the entire NFL. His team's
down by one with a snapper and holder he's never
met until that day, and he goes ahead and hits
a sixty yarder and you can see the picture of
my eyes behind him like wow, stand next to Pat McAfee.
Pat looked at me. You know, I'm not gonna use
the same excelevatives, but it was like, holy cow, what
a can. So the moment he hit that, I'm like, oh,

(19:02):
I got a this might be my guy. And then
Ryan Fitzgerald comes, the kid who just is at Carolina
just made the game winner this week. Ryan comes and
he hits a sixty yarder. So my son's team wins
by one, but he had made a great can. So
that kind of started me on my journey for Tyler Loup.

Speaker 5 (19:19):
And what did you know? Like, when did you know
that this was the guy that.

Speaker 2 (19:23):
Was the restaurant in Tucson, wasn't it?

Speaker 6 (19:24):
So we went to the listeners that story we went
to the restaurant in Tucson. So I went out to Tucson.
We had a really good workout. It was like one
hundred and ten degrees on the turf there, so it
worked him out. At Arizona it.

Speaker 2 (19:34):
Was hot so prevery different from Cleveland.

Speaker 6 (19:39):
So we went out and so usually it's like the
same thing I did with Jordan's stouta Penn State. You
try to take these guys out because they're always on
their best behavior when they're around everybody else, right, But
you go take them out, you talk to them on
the phone, and then you kind of throw them you
probe some questions. It's like, are you really knowledgeable? You're
not knowledgeable. So we went to Rover's name in that restaurant.
We went to the Monica. It was a great restaurant.

(20:01):
We ordered, uh, we ordered our food and we sat
down and then then we started really going through the
mechanics of kicking what do you? What do you? Who
have you worked with? She's got to kind of find
out who these guys have worked with because there's different coaches,
there are different guys who teach differently. So we went
through it and he was just remarkably intelligent on it.

(20:22):
Uh and then kind of moved the table aside a
little bit, and he did. We went through his stroke
and all and I have the text still and I
text John at the end of that dinner that I
think we found our guy.

Speaker 2 (20:34):
That's awesome.

Speaker 5 (20:35):
What was your memory of that whole process and the dinner,
Like were you feeling did you have the same thoughts
as you were going through that? Like, man I hope
it's the Ravens. I think this could be the fit. Like,
what was your perspective on it?

Speaker 4 (20:47):
I was just, you know, I was surprised he asked
for all flats and he ordered his wings.

Speaker 6 (20:54):
I love flats.

Speaker 4 (20:59):
I was like, you know, for me, I was like,
I'm gonna get home field advantage here. I love the Monica.
So I got home field vantage are and just be comfortable.
But just sitting down talking like, uh, you know, I
said this in the very first press conference, was I
think something that's like cool and unique is sometimes you

(21:21):
just find like a common thread that you agree on,
and I think it's a good start for a lot
of relationships, especially from coach to player when you're talking
mechanics of kicking and like all those things. Uh, you know,
we had a little bit different language for it, but
when we sat down actually broke down film, it was
like we're saying the same things that you want to

(21:43):
see accomplished within a kick. And so after we got
done with that, I was like, I love this because
you know, when I got to college, like I had
three different head coaches, four different special teams coordinators, three
different analysts, Like you have a lot of people that
are coaching you, and you have to learn to basically
coach yourself. Like if you want to be successful at

(22:04):
the college level, you have to have the knowledge to
coach yourself and deal with it because, like he said,
there's days where you just don't feel good, right, and
especially with college, like you get to midterms weeks or
finals weeks. Now you're studying for you know, three four exams,
you know, staying up late. Then you got to go
to practice and perform, and now you've got a game.
And so the coach should I grew up working with.

(22:28):
He harped on it, like from the first day I
started working with my sophomore year, He's like, you have
to know this stuff, like you have to learn how
to kick, you have to learn to coach yourself, and
you have to just fall in love with your mechanics.
And so you know, to do that for four years
and then finally sit down with a coach and just
be like, this is what I do, this is why

(22:49):
I do it, And for that to just click had
me really excited. He's like, Okay, I love this like
I would. I'd love to, you know, spend more time
working on that and playing at the Ravens and spend
just like developing that game. So I left feeling really good.
Like I remember, I text my fiance and someone tweeted
this after I hit like a sixty two yarder in college.

(23:11):
They tweeted, Tyler Loop, you are a Baltimore Raven.

Speaker 5 (23:14):
I like that.

Speaker 4 (23:16):
I like sent that. I literally screenshot it and I
sent the tweet to my fiance and she's like, what
do you mean. I was like, I think I'm gonna
be a Raven after after they this.

Speaker 2 (23:25):
Is before you even miss Randy.

Speaker 4 (23:27):
Well, so it was after dinner, okay, yeah, okay, it
was after dinner. Yeah.

Speaker 6 (23:33):
And you know the thing was is like all everybody's
reaching out to me. Yeah, okay, Randy always saw this
or we saw this or oh you know, so we
were attached to all these different kickers, which was great
with me because I didn't want anybody knowing I liked
him right all right, So anybody called me on me,
I don't know about him. I don't know. Did you
see that miss a twenty six yard? Miss? I don't know,

(23:55):
but I love so and so I'm not going to
say publicly who I kept saying, I love.

Speaker 2 (23:58):
Oh you were throwing them off.

Speaker 6 (24:00):
Oh solely wait and one of the and there was
one of our local guys. Oh, I heard from a
great source, this is who the one guy. I'm like,
you gotcha? Gotcha? So draft day and I don't know
if you guys are wanting to touch on draft day,
but so the draft name night before the draft comes

(24:21):
and I'm like, ty I just I hope you're there
because you're my guy, and I really hope we can
we can pick you. And uh, that morning, Eric came
in and said, who was your guy? And I said,
it's Tyler. And and thankfully Steve and John and Eric, uh,
especially Steve was all in for drafting a kicker this

(24:43):
year and it was a little Harry at the end
of the fifth round beginning of the sixth, to say
the least, the little Harry. And then when New England
came up to pick a kicker, and uh, and they
didn't take Tyler, which was a little surprising because the
special teams coach at New England was Tyler's.

Speaker 4 (25:00):
Especial teams coach for recruited me to Arizona.

Speaker 6 (25:03):
At Arizona, I thought when New England was going to
pick a kicker, I thought for sure. Oh and now
they have a play.

Speaker 2 (25:08):
You're sweating.

Speaker 6 (25:09):
I were sweating. And by the way, they have an
outstanding kicker. Andy's outstanding. He's had a great Star of
the season, great young man, great family. I mean, you know,
it wasn't really you know, dramatically, but you know, I'm
fortunate enough that we got him. And yeah, and it
was as excited as I've been in a long long
time regarding football.

Speaker 1 (25:26):
I looked up the stats to Tyler seventeen to nineteen,
zero misses from under fifty so far, and he's.

Speaker 2 (25:32):
Under fifty five under fifty five, thank you.

Speaker 1 (25:35):
Andy's fifteen to seventeen had two extra point misses also, Rady.

Speaker 2 (25:38):
So both good starts. Both good starts for showing you're.

Speaker 6 (25:41):
Tough and both you know, both guys. You're playing Baltimore,
New England, yep. And and and for everybody out there,
it's a layup to kick indoors. Okay, like when we
kicked in Dallas against you know, with Brandon Aubrey. You know,
he was going toe to toe in pregame. It was
just fun, it was. But like you can play twelve
or thirteen games, right, maybe fourteen, you know, to play

(26:02):
in Detroit or play in Dallas or play you know. Yeh,
but that's that's a light up. But now we actually
have challenges.

Speaker 2 (26:10):
I'm sure.

Speaker 1 (26:11):
Also another thing that you're you're trying to scout is
the clutch factor. You know, I know that you take
a scientific look at everything. So do you almost take
that out of the equation, that that being clutch or
whatever isn't a real thing or is there something tangible
to that?

Speaker 6 (26:33):
David Akers, Matt Stover, Graham Cano, Steve Halshka, Will Lutz,
Cameron Dicker, Justin Tucker, Tyler Loop. These are the kickers
I've surrounded myself within all these years, and I think
all of them have the same trait. And they're all
out standing field goal kickers. They've had great some of
that great career, some are still having really good careers

(26:53):
and they are unfazed. And I think you can really tell,
and especially you guys who you you interact with so
many people, you can tell very shortly after you interact
with somebody, what are they like? Are they kind of cool?
Are they stand offish? Are they arrogant? Are they self centered?
Are they nervous?

Speaker 1 (27:11):
Like?

Speaker 6 (27:11):
Can they look at you? Can they really look at you.
And in all the kickers that I've gone through through
the years, and the ones I've really really liked are
the ones that, to me, are confident in what they
do because it's you buy yourself out there and doesn't
matter how good of a teacher I am, doesn't matter
how good of a holder, you have, doesn't matter how
good a long snapper you have, it's you. You have

(27:32):
to be so confident in yourself in that one point
three seconds to not change your mind in that time period.
That's the part where that NFL kickers get deserve more
credit than they got because they're so good now, Like
ninety percent back when I came in this leg was
unheard of twenty seven years ago. It was almost unheard
of fifteen years ago. Now ninety percent is expected. What's

(27:56):
really should be expected is an eighty percent field goal
guy with the distances that were kicking these days. But
you've got to know who your guy is because when
they're back there, it's so easy to have some self
doubt like, oh maybe I shouldn't play inside the right
up right, Oh maybe I should should play a little
bit more middle. And you need that guy, so the
clutch factor is the guy that knows his stroke, that

(28:16):
has done it so many times that game on the line,
He's going to do what his process is. And every
time you hear Tyler talk about process, it's what is
firmly entrenched in his mind. It's process, process, process.

Speaker 5 (28:27):
I'm curious, Tyler, I want to go back along the
lines of clutch and wanting to be in that in
that moment. I want to go back to the game
in Cleveland. And obviously the Mark Andrews touchdown run is
like a moment that's it's an iconic Raven's play. But
if it could have gone the other way, where the
Ravens just say, Okay, this is let's let's kick it.
You know, it's a tie game at that point, and
it's a one fourth and one, And I'm curious, like

(28:50):
what your process or you're what you were thinking in
that moment, because that would have been the biggest kick
of your NFL career to date, and you had just
kicked a forty four yard or earlier in the game,
uh to tie, Yeah, to tie the game, and that
was probably your biggest kick to date maybe, and so
that but you know, there's something that goes to an
even another level fifty plus yarder at that point of
the game to take the lead. Was there any part

(29:12):
of you that was saying, like give me the shot,
Like how are you processing and thinking about that moment?

Speaker 4 (29:19):
Yeah. So the one thing like I think that's helpful
and to have in like in your head and in
your mental makeup is like when it comes down to it,
like you want the opportunity to do it. So even
going back to like when I was growing up playing
soccer and playing our sports, like there were a few

(29:39):
times where it's like, okay, we're late in the game,
like we need a goal. I always played center back,
but I knew and like I would go to my coach.
I'd tell him like, please put me it forward, like
you need a goal, put me up, like I will
go score a goal here, and that Like that sort
of mental I don't even know what you'd call it,

(30:00):
almost is something that I think you kind of need
to be successful at this level. So when it came
down like the forty four yarder, I remember I kicked
a ball into the net, and I was like, before
third down even happens, typically I'll hit a ball, I'll
hit a ball two when the drive starts, and then

(30:22):
every time he gets a third down and field goal range,
I'll hit another ball. But instead of hitting a ball,
I like walked over because I was like, I'm gonna
look Randy in the eyes and just let him know,
like this forty four yard is going in. And so
I remember doing that, and then we sat down on
the bench and it was we always send this Jordan Nick,
myself and Randy and we're like, let's hit a game winner.
Like Nick Nick Moore loved the dude. He is golden

(30:45):
to be around, and he's like, let's just do some
epic stuff.

Speaker 6 (30:50):
And we want to hit game winners. Now, yeah, hey,
we don't. The play was amazing, right.

Speaker 4 (30:56):
Oh my gosh. It's like it was one of those
things where we were sitting there it would be sick,
so like into the dog pound, which is like the
conversation we had before Cleveland was like going towards the
dog pound is is the direction that stadium that is
challenging to kick too. And we were sitting on the
bench like it would be sick after hitting a forty

(31:18):
four year at a tie, then the next drive come
out and smashing a game winner. We're like that would
be so fun. And so that was that was kind
of the makeup and like we were ready for it
and they're like, Okay, we're going to go for it.
It's like, okay, great, Like we trust our offense, we
trust our defense.

Speaker 6 (31:34):
Yeah, but like during the game, you can see in
a player's eyes, right, he makes his forty four, and
he did. He walked past me and we looked at
each other and it was just one of those you
got it.

Speaker 5 (31:45):
I know, you gave a little swigger coming off the field,
and it felt like after that one, it just it
just seemed that way.

Speaker 6 (31:49):
So we sat down and and I could tell, you
could tell if he wanted to go back out there again.

Speaker 4 (31:55):
Yeah, on the game.

Speaker 6 (31:56):
But you know that fun he's got. He's got plenty
of game winners ahead. And but the thing is the
way that we do it is in all my years
here in the in the eighteen years, I've never once
walked over to Kicker and asked him can you make this?
These guys have trusted in me, and I just decide
if they're going to kick it or not. I mean,
Coach Charball has the final decision. It's Harves's call. A

(32:18):
lot of times you'll see I'll be near him and
we'll talk about it.

Speaker 2 (32:21):
You know, you basically give Harves the thumbs up.

Speaker 4 (32:23):
There. That's it.

Speaker 6 (32:23):
And I don't never, I've never, in eighteen years, never
walked over to a kicker and say are we good here?
Because they you know, they know I've got their best interest,
but they also know I know their range as good
or better than them because kickers, they're never going to
coach walks.

Speaker 2 (32:40):
Go for it.

Speaker 6 (32:40):
I want could you imagine that?

Speaker 2 (32:43):
Now? I'm good, you don't want that guy?

Speaker 6 (32:45):
I'm good. You're feeling pretty warm right now. I'm gonna
say right here.

Speaker 1 (32:49):
So.

Speaker 6 (32:51):
I've taken it off them. Of all the kickers we've
had here, he's taken it off and we've just made
the decision, coach Arball and I've made the decision of
you know, we're going to are not going to kick it.
And it's worked out pretty good through the years, right all.

Speaker 1 (33:04):
Right, Randy, So this is the part where you put
on the ear muffs. I'm gonna ask Tyler this question.
What is it like being coached by this guy? You know,
he's the kicking guru.

Speaker 2 (33:12):
Of the NFL.

Speaker 1 (33:13):
What is it like and He's also a plus personality
within this building. What's it like being coached by Randy?

Speaker 2 (33:22):
You can ear muffs at any point.

Speaker 4 (33:24):
So the first whiff of Randy's incredible personality that I
got was when he texted me and it was random
number and it said, uh, you know, like it gives
you the name of the contact, like you don't have
the number saved.

Speaker 2 (33:39):
It said Mayor Brown?

Speaker 6 (33:42):
Who is Mayor Brown?

Speaker 4 (33:45):
Because prior to this we talked for maybe two minutes
of the combine, like during the field goal session. Because
the day before, when we were supposed to have all
the interviews, I got caught up. I don't know how
I got caught up at the hospital for like twelve
hours that day. I was there from nine am to
nine pm, just sitting in a chair waiting for X rays.

Speaker 6 (34:03):
He was the only guy who missed our interviews. But
that's okay.

Speaker 4 (34:06):
I literally was the only guy in missary. I got
back and I was just like, oh, this is rough, dad,
And thankfully my dad was there because like we weren't
allowed to leave the hotel pas a certain time. I
was like, Dad, I need to bring me food. DoorDash closed.
When I got back to my room and I was like,
oh boy, but anyways, uh it was it was a

(34:27):
fun like first introduction after the combine because I was
sitting down taking off my cleats and changing. He just
comes over and goes and it weighs me over and
we chatted for a minute and then you know, the
first time that we had our workout together at Arizona
and sitting down, I was like, this dude's wired up.

(34:47):
Like this dude is wired up right now, which is
a good thing because it it challenges you. And he's
like the nice thing is I I think it's a
big disservice to players when coaches are dishonest with them.
And one thing like Randy won't be with you during
during practice is dishonest. Like if he sees something he

(35:10):
doesn't like, he's gonna tell you and he's going to
tell you exactly why he thinks that what he sees
and like you you know, he lets you know that.
And then what's great is you can sit down and
look at film because we la there's of football saying
it's like the eye and this guy never lies and
so we get to then sit down and look at
film and really talk about it and it's been a

(35:31):
really cool conversation of like, you know, we talk about
loving the mechanics of kicking, and so it's been it's
been really cool and I've I've really enjoyed my time here,
especially working with him and Nick and Jordan and those guys.
Like it's been, it's been really rewarding.

Speaker 5 (35:49):
I'm curious what how you approach training camp because for
all the stuff we just talked about, you were his guy,
uh that you were the guy that the Raves wanted,
like you you got drafted, but you still had to
win the job like it wasn't and there was competition,
and John Hoyland was here at the time and you
had to earn it like and you know, he's a
good kicker who challenged you over the course of the
off season into training camp. But but over the course

(36:12):
of camp, like you, you clearly won the job and
earned earned the spot. How did you approach the everyday
grind of going out there and needing to deliver and
to win that job over the course of the summer.

Speaker 4 (36:24):
Yeah? Uh, First off, John Hoyland is an awesome dude.
Like I loved having him around here. He was for
for lack there of a better term. He was like
the perfect pace setting competition for me, because you know,

(36:46):
one thing that I've always felt really confident in myself
about is like I can hit the ball really far,
but what good is hitting the ball for if you
don't know where it's going? Right John Hoyland, that dude
was so processed or like he came in and it
was like if nothing, if hell or high water, John
was going to hit a straight ball. And so for me,

(37:06):
like coming in every day, I knew I was like,
I need to come here and hit a straight ball,
Like I can't get caught up in this whole competition
of just trying to mash the ball and trying to
you know, hit it and prove for all the flash,
oh sixty eight yard seventy yarder. It's like I gotta
make my kicks because like we're going off percentages. And

(37:28):
John Hoylan pushed me a lot in that, and so
that was that was really helpful for me. But then
the every day part of waking up, like football's performance business.
You know, the day the day you stopped making kicks
is the day that your career is like starting to
getting jeopardy. Like there's a few rules thumbs, like the
day you stop getting better is the day your career

(37:49):
is over. Like you're on the downhill after that. And
so you know that's just my approach. It's like you
have to come and perform. You can't not come in.
You have to be able to rely on all the
work you've put in before and all the things like
you know now to be able to improve and perform.

Speaker 2 (38:10):
So that was.

Speaker 4 (38:10):
Something that through training camp was really good for me,
I think, and something that I really really enjoyed.

Speaker 6 (38:15):
And when so the Hoylan thing. So when Eric and
George said you can have another spot for a kicker,
I didn't want to bring another big legged guy. So
we could pretend we can have a home running.

Speaker 2 (38:27):
Competition fun for us to watch.

Speaker 5 (38:29):
It would be great for you guys to watch drive
competition every day in practice.

Speaker 6 (38:33):
So so I selected Hoyl in just because I knew
he hit a straight ball. I know his leg wasn't
as strong as as as Tyler's. So there was a
day John goes because if you guys remember back in
training camp, I was alternating a lot because I like ball.
The football is being kicked on practice. We like field
goal periods. So John went nine for nine. Okay, next

(38:53):
morning he comes in my office like eight oh one am,
I'm up by myself today, right, I said, yeah, yeah, yeah,
I'll Putjohn down down. He says, all right, I need
to go ten for ten today. Swear to God, I
need to go ten for ten. To give me ten,
give me ten.

Speaker 1 (39:07):
Right.

Speaker 6 (39:08):
So if you remember that was the day. That was
the day where he was bombing all over the place.
We hit like sixty two, sixty four, sixty eight. He
went ten for ten and it worked out. I was
very fortunate. But John, I think John Howley is probably
end up paying here in the spring leg. So John
probike could play in our league here soon. But it
was a competition and he didn't try to OutKick John.

(39:30):
He just wanted to use him and John. Honestly, I
think he learned a little bit John and John learned
from him.

Speaker 1 (39:36):
With all that said, and you mentioned that you're using
the TrackMan devices, what was the longest that Tyler hitting
training camp?

Speaker 2 (39:44):
Because I know there were a lot of uz and oh.

Speaker 6 (39:47):
Well, well, the farthest we made in training camp was
sixty eight on a live op on a live op.
Sixty eight on live op but track Man and we
had seventy four, seventy five maybe and then it was
about seven. Yeah, good, it would have been good from.

Speaker 4 (40:03):
So yeah, track Man gives you a good from.

Speaker 6 (40:05):
It gives you sorry, track Man gives you where you
made it from, but would have been good from, just
like you see on Sunday Night football, right right, I
believe we're almost seventy five.

Speaker 4 (40:14):
It was seventy five on the sixty three yarder. Wow
that we hit with.

Speaker 6 (40:17):
That's right, seven sixty three yarder.

Speaker 4 (40:19):
The fun the fun thing was like track Man only tracks,
and so you set it up on the forty so
we had a day. We had one day, right, hit
like a seventy five yarder.

Speaker 6 (40:29):
But him, I mean, honestly, him and Jordan last week,
just last week, him and Jordan were mashing the ball.
We had the wind at our back a little bit.
Jordan hit from seventy four, Tyler hit from seventy.

Speaker 2 (40:41):
But you know Jordan on a field goal attend Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 6 (40:43):
Yeah, definitely.

Speaker 2 (40:44):
Granted he hit into it.

Speaker 6 (40:46):
Granted five might go dead left, but one of them
is going to be like wow, I'm all still going.
But you know, remember Jordan was really yeah, came to
our aid last year with the kickoffs, he was outsta
and we're playing the game in Buffalo at the end
of the year where you know, he puts a ball
through the uprights and its zero degrees, right. So, and

(41:07):
Jordan was outstanding as a kicker at Penn State too,
And you know, and that's the one thing that we
talk about process. It goes back to Coach Charbon and
I in Philadelphia when we had David Akers, Koy Detmer
and Mike Bartram and snapping over the ball, twelve o'clock
laces over the spot, twelve o'clock lass. And we've carried
that here of course, with with Sam Morgan and Tuck

(41:30):
and with Jordan and Nick and Tyler have done they've
picked it all up. And the process that we've that
Coach Charbon and I have done for twenty five years,
we're still doing it today.

Speaker 4 (41:40):
Right.

Speaker 1 (41:41):
Well, we talk about you know, John Hoyland and the
competition against him, but you know, when you were first drafted,
Justin Tucker was here the goat of kickers, right, how
long did it take before that kind of narrative was
behind you?

Speaker 2 (41:54):
And and it was just okay, I'm done with that and.

Speaker 1 (41:56):
How did you see Tyler handle that? Because that was
that was the story line when he was first drafted. Right,
that's tough to come into a place where Justin Tucker
had set such a high bar.

Speaker 4 (42:06):
Oh man, I'll be honest, I don't I still don't
think it's gone and I don't know if it ever
will be Justin Tucker Like, if you want just being
completely honest, he's the best kicker to ever play.

Speaker 5 (42:19):
M hm.

Speaker 4 (42:20):
That is right, facts like he is. He's been so
hyper successful and he hits such a good ball and
he had such a long career because he was just
that good. And you know, the Ravens have had what
five kickers in the in the thirty year history. I
mean it's been it was uh Tuck and myself, right,

(42:45):
So we had five kickers in thirty years. Like there's
just a there's a pageantry here of successful specialists and
so like that's something that's been really cool to be
a part of because personally, I don't feel like I
haven't he claim to that yet. You know, that's something
that you like, that's a brotherhood. You have to earn
your way into same thing with like the ring of honor,

(43:08):
like the all time greats that have played here, Like
that's something you earn, and so to be here, like
I definitely want to honor the pageantry that's been here
and give my all to be successful here, Like that's
that's really important to me, and it's been it's been
something really cool to to be a part of. Like, hey,

(43:28):
like this place has been really successful for kickers, and
like the city, the city of the coaches and the
organization believe in me that way. It's like I want
to honor that and give everything that I have to
not kind of kind of carry the torch.

Speaker 2 (43:44):
Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 6 (43:45):
My message to him from the beginning is just God,
be the best Tyler Loop, you know, and I talk
a lot, you know, my son Tyler has done and
has done a fabulous job in Philadelphia with the with
Jake Elliott, and prior to Tyler getting there, I think
Jake was coming off a seventy three percent season and
in the last four years, they've done two Super Bowls,

(44:05):
you know, Pro Bowl, and they kick in very similar
conditions and we do. And I think one of the
first things I taught my son was whomever your kicker is,
just making be the best kicker of who he is,
and do we take pieces of other kickers? Do we
like some things? Sure, but Tyler has to be the
best Tyler Loop. Cameron Dicker had to be the best

(44:27):
Cameron Dicker. Will Lutts, who's kicking great, who was a
fifty six percent accuracy guy at Georgia State that we
got to just come here and goof around with is
kicking game winners every week because he's the best Will Lutts.
He's not a model of Tuck, He's not a model
of anybody else. He's a model. He's the best Will
LUTs And I've continued on that with him of just

(44:49):
go be you, and I mean, yeah, it's it's it's
quite the mantle that he has to try to but
just go be great, Tyler Loop. Just keep making kicks Taler.

Speaker 5 (44:59):
Really cool moment in the preseason was the game of Dallas.
You're from you from Texas and your family had the
Loop there it is size and there was like it
seemed like there was fifty.

Speaker 4 (45:08):
Loops, thirty people.

Speaker 5 (45:11):
I wasn't far off. What was that game like? And
how cool was it for the Loop family to have
that moment in the spotlight?

Speaker 4 (45:17):
It was really fun. Oh, man, Like I kicked there
in high school at the playoff game, so it was
it was fun to be back there, and especially like
growing up in Dallas, that was a unique opportunity. It's like, hey,
it's a preseason game. You know, my family's there at
the time. My fiance's sister and her husband were in
the area, so you know, a lot of their family

(45:40):
got to come stay with them and then go to
the game. So it was really fun. It was It
was just really special.

Speaker 2 (45:46):
Have they come to any other games?

Speaker 1 (45:47):
Like I want to see it every time that you
make it feel I want to see the.

Speaker 5 (45:52):
Loop, by the way, has kind of caught on.

Speaker 2 (45:55):
What's going on?

Speaker 4 (45:57):
Yeah, no, no, no, it was crazy in Miami.

Speaker 3 (46:00):
Miami was Miami was crazy because it was I heard
louder chants in Miami that I travel, Yes.

Speaker 4 (46:13):
So that was really cool. But Dallas was Dallas was
a blast. And like, one thing that you know, I'm
I'm super grateful for is like I've gotten awesome family
and a lot of awesome people around the Like my
my fiance is incredible, love her and and her family
is also awesome, and so you know, one thing that

(46:34):
I'm I'm really grateful for is Uh, They've just been
super supportive and have given me the like freedom and
space to be successful and have always kind of always
been a really safe place for me. My parents came
to I think almost every single one of my college games. Uh,

(46:55):
and so they do. They do come to a lot
of the a lot of the NFL games. They don't
bring a little banners. But yeah, it was just having
like pretty much every like major friendship and important person
in my life so far at that game was it
was cool.

Speaker 6 (47:15):
And you know, when you meet his parents, which is
crazy but I'm older than his parents, But when you
meet his parents at ability we had dinner for the
Dallas game before that, and what a great takeaway you
have for the stability that he has and support that
supports system. And it goes back to the whole mental
toughness and all. And you look at these these athletes

(47:37):
who have really good, solid support systems, who are kickers,
and that was a win win for us, It really was.
And but having a thirty five year old son like
I have and being older than his than his parents
kind of like, Okay, how many more years am I
really going to do this particular grade?

Speaker 5 (47:56):
Well, you talk about family. I also want to ask
you about this, Randy, because this is going to be
a pretty cool moment for you. Your daughter is actually singing
the national anthem.

Speaker 6 (48:04):
Yes, this will be Ryan's fourth anthem. She's done for us.
She's done two preseason games and last year she did
the Eagles game. Uh, she's We've had an incredible summer.
This past summer we did Fenway for the third time.
She did Red Sox Dodgers on a Sunday cool. The
Oriols have been great. She does a couple of Oriols
games every year. We did Nationals. Actually just got an
email they want to do Wizards game in a week

(48:25):
or two. But she's a college girl now, and uh,
you know it's hard because I could book her all
the time.

Speaker 2 (48:32):
Are you basically her manager?

Speaker 6 (48:33):
Why not? Basically?

Speaker 2 (48:34):
I am?

Speaker 3 (48:36):
Wait?

Speaker 6 (48:36):
Wait you know me. You's gonna let somebody else be
my kids manager? You know, and my youngest Jordan mackenzie.
I have to brag about my youngest. Jordan McKenzie's is
one of the most talented actresses you'll ever going to find. Okay,
she's starring in Little Mermaid as Ariel this year, Wow
Rule Ers Ago. She was Annie, and uh so now
we're going through the college prospects of that and auditions

(48:58):
and for the amount of money it's gonna cost for
me to send her to school. Uh Steve, Eric John,
as long as you want me here, just I'm gonna
need money for at least next five years.

Speaker 2 (49:09):
I'm just gonna have to start taking a cut exactly.
All right.

Speaker 1 (49:13):
Last question for me, Tyler, is you know you hit
the forty four yard or in the wind late fourth
quarter to tie the game. Were you more nervous for
that or the post game speech in the celbratory locker
room when Harbes called.

Speaker 2 (49:26):
You up and said you had to give a speech.

Speaker 4 (49:27):
Oh, postgames speech. I was like, like, I don't know,
it's yeah.

Speaker 2 (49:36):
Postgame speeches are.

Speaker 4 (49:37):
Interesting, especially coming from a kicker like I. It's such.
I was talking to Kyle and Rokwan Smith we're having
lunch the ore today and they were just asked me
about kicking and cogos. Dude, you have such a different
football experience than any of us, Like I definitely do,
because you know, the one thing, like they just expect
me to do my job and that is it. Like

(49:59):
we talked about in the special teams meeting today is
Special teams is the one phase of the game where
you were expected to bat a thousand, right Like, you
were just expected to do your job. The only thing
that ever gets talked about in special teams is either
game winning field goals or missfield goals right like, or
you know, a fumble on a kickoff return, Like those
type of things are yeah, bad things.

Speaker 2 (50:21):
Is the only thing really really great?

Speaker 4 (50:23):
So uh So with that in mind, me mentally, I'm like,
I'm here to do my job and do it really
well and be the best. You know, high five, Hey,
good job, like like just like fun person to just
support and be around. But then get in front of
the team and tell them like how to play football

(50:45):
or anything. Guys, that's not me. So I was just
like I got up there. I was like my sales like,
it's a sick winning guys, like have.

Speaker 1 (50:53):
Fun, get it ready for the game winner, get it
ready for the game winner.

Speaker 2 (50:57):
It's going to happen. Then that'll be your moment in
the locker.

Speaker 4 (50:59):
Whatever on the bat might say the exact same thing.

Speaker 2 (51:04):
Awesome, Well, thank you guys so much.

Speaker 6 (51:06):
This is really for having us.

Speaker 2 (51:07):
I appreciate it.

Speaker 5 (51:08):
Thank you Welcome back to the Lounge podcast. We're coming
to you from the Sikik studio. We want to mention
our partners at Draft Kings Sportsbook. They are an official
sports betting partner of the Baltimore Ravens Draft King Sportsbook.
The Crown is yours, so big. Thank you to Mayor
Brown and to Tyler Loop for joining us here today.
Enjoy the conversation and tightful stuff from them. And I

(51:28):
think the Ravens not a good one in Tyler Loop.
I think he's going to be kicking here for a
long time. And as Randy said, I think he's got
a lot of game winners in the future.

Speaker 6 (51:35):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (51:35):
Absolutely.

Speaker 1 (51:36):
I mean you look at the field goal percentages and
he's over that ninety percent that Randy talked about. Tyler
Loops tied currently for the fifth best field goal percentage
in the league. And you know, the Ravens wanted a
kicker that made it from forty, you know, under fifty
basically consistently, He's made all of those attempts under fifty five.
And so yeah, Tyler Loop's getting the job done. And

(51:57):
it's kind of remarkable. As we came in to the season.
I think one of the biggest questions about this team
was all right, they have a rookie kicker. You know,
this is a loaded roster, but they have a rookie kicker,
and how's he gonna handle it? And Tyler Loop has
erased all those question marks and doubts and concerns and
it just feels like, yeah, all right, we know who

(52:18):
we have.

Speaker 2 (52:18):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (52:19):
I really liked his answer to when he was talking
about how he wanted the opportunity.

Speaker 2 (52:22):
For a game winner and it's gonna have this.

Speaker 5 (52:24):
You want, like you want somebody who wants to take
the game winning shot. You want somebody who wants to
ball hit to them in the key moment like that.
That's the type of mindset that you desire to have
in any of your players, especially a kicker. And so
it's awesome that he has that. And I think he's
been really good so far and I think that's only
going to continue. So we also want to hit some
of the news of the week as Raves get ready

(52:45):
to play the New York Jets this Sunday at M ANDT.
Banks Stadium. Is going to be a great game and
we're looking forward to that. So injury wise, for the Ravens.
That's one of the news items this week. Marlon Humphrey
missed the game on Sunday against Cleveland, had that surgery
on his finger. There's a chance he comes back and
plays in this game.

Speaker 2 (53:07):
How Well said, he's optimistic.

Speaker 1 (53:08):
Yes, so he had the cast brace, he had a
pin inserted.

Speaker 5 (53:13):
Well, but before that he played a game with the
cast on his hand. And then if he plays this game,
he probably would have some sort of protection wrap, cast
something like that. Okay, he still makes interceptions and he
still had the interception even with that in Minnesota. So
there's a chance he comes back and plays in this game.
And obviously his practice status is going to be something
that we watch over the course of the week.

Speaker 1 (53:34):
You'd obviously love to have Marlon back, I thought. Chidobe
Ouzia also played an awesome game in Cleveland. So the
Ravens are in good position cornerback wise. They have depth.
Now they do have another injury concerned, Keon Martin, the
undrafted rookie free agent who has stepped in and played
slot corner kind of Marlin. Snaps were split up between

(53:55):
Cheeto taking the outside snaps and then Keon taking the
nickel snaps. Uh, key On Martin spent the night in
the Cleveland hospital after the Ravens victory. He is back
in Baltimore, traveled back the next day.

Speaker 5 (54:09):
He was dealing with a chest injury.

Speaker 1 (54:11):
John Harbaugh said, exactly, So that'll be something to monitor
this week if he's okay and ready to get back
on the field.

Speaker 5 (54:18):
Yeah, And John Harball said it was more precautionary than
anything else, that he stayed in Cleveland just to get
some further testing, and the fact that he's back in.

Speaker 2 (54:26):
Baltimore that the test came out clean.

Speaker 5 (54:28):
Yeah, they came out clean, so that the guin of
the worst concerns there were alleviated, but that his status
is definitely something that bears watching because, honestly, like that's
the more interesting one is if if Marlon and key
On Martin weren't able to play in this game, who
do the Ravens use as a slot corner.

Speaker 1 (54:46):
Well, I think Kyle Hailton obviously can play that, but
you don't want to also pigeonhole him into any position.

Speaker 5 (54:51):
Yeah, So, I mean, Hamilton's going to be on the field,
there's no question about that. Nate Wigans and Chidoh Woozie
are going to be on the field. But who's that
other additional guy that comes in there in the role
that key On Martin was playing last game. If if
key On Martin and Marlin Humphrey can't play, who would
that be and how Ravens adjust their defense with that?

Speaker 1 (55:13):
Yeah, anytime you're playing Nickel, you could use Kyle Hamilton
in that role. Right then you have Malachi and Alohi
as your other hue safeties. But Kyle Hamilton's played a
much more versatile role than that, so you don't like
to pin him down anywhere. And and because when Keon's
on the field, Kyle Hamilton has also been on the field,
so he's somewhere else to be exactly question, he's going

(55:36):
to be on the field. So I think the Ravens
have options. But you obviously want Kean, you obviously want Marlon,
and then if not Marlin, you want Keon.

Speaker 5 (55:44):
Right, So we'll see how those guys progress over the
course of the week and if they're able to come
back and play in this game. The other note injury
wise for this game on Sunday is a quarterback Tyrod
Taylor is going to step in for Justin fields.

Speaker 1 (55:57):
Well, not injury or Justin Gillings that's roster of late,
that's correct. But former Raven Tyrod Taylor, part of the
Super Bowl winning team was Joe Flacco's backup.

Speaker 2 (56:07):
And credit to Tyrod Taylor.

Speaker 5 (56:08):
Man.

Speaker 1 (56:08):
He's had a long career. Sixth round pick of the
Ravens way back.

Speaker 2 (56:14):
When it was twenty eleven.

Speaker 1 (56:16):
Twenty eleven, yes, and coming out of Virginia Tech. And
Tyrod has just hung around this league for a long
time and been a high quality backup for quite some time.
So you know, Justin Field's in that offense, it was struggling,
and now Tyrod is a veteran who makes the right decisions,
can still get out and get you with his legs
a little.

Speaker 2 (56:35):
Bit, and somebody.

Speaker 5 (56:37):
The Ravens are gonna have to prepare well for that
twenty eleven draft class, really really good class for the Ravens.
Tory Smith, Jimmy Smith.

Speaker 2 (56:44):
Tyrod late Parnell part of that.

Speaker 5 (56:47):
Yeah, yeah, he was part of that. That class helped
the Ravens win that second Lobardi Trophy. And Tyrod's still going,
So Ravens aren't really going to be too interested in
taking a trip down memory lane when he's on the
other side this week.

Speaker 2 (56:59):
But Reunion Central.

Speaker 1 (57:01):
Yeah, Joe Flacco comes back to the bang Tyrod.

Speaker 5 (57:04):
Yeah, my Ce Flacco three times this year. He knows
now it's y Rod. Speaking of the AFC North. Just
take a quick look around there. Aaron Rodgers in Pittsburgh
is dealing with the fracture and his left wrist is
non throwing risks right, so uncertain, Mike Tomlins said this
week it basically they're going to have some measure of

(57:24):
protection on that risk, and he's going to try to
go later in the week and if he's able to
get out there and practice and play, then of course
he will. But it's very much a question mark for
them going into this game.

Speaker 1 (57:35):
So right now they're rolling with Mason Rudolph in the
early parts of the week, and Mike Tomlins said, basically,
if Aaron Rodgers can get back on the field Friday
and feels good about it and feels secure and the
coaches feel good about it, then he's not a guy
that you need a full week of practice. He's Aaron
Rodgers and so then he could potentially play. And that
Aaron Rodgers is pushing to play for the Ravens. It

(57:57):
feels like unless he were to have some kind of
setback and and it gets reinjured or further injured. It
seems like Aaron Rodgers will be ready to go against
the Ravens, of which they haven't played each other yet,
and so those big matchups against the Steelers are still looming.

Speaker 6 (58:13):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (58:13):
The other big note is in Cincinnati, Jamar Chase is
suspended for this upcoming game for spitting on Jalen Ramsey.
And they're playing. They're playing in the New England Patriots
this week. They're three and seven right now. Now they're
without their best player and Jamar Chase, who's going to
be silent.

Speaker 1 (58:29):
Well, he is appealing the decision. So we'll see if
he serves it for this game. Why doesn't he serve it?
You know what, play this game, appeal it, you might
win the appeal, might appeal it, might win, even though
there's video evidence otherwise, and then maybe serve it then
the following week for things.

Speaker 5 (58:44):
That's a good thought. That's a good thought. Just to
suggest who do they play on Thanksgiving?

Speaker 4 (58:47):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (58:47):
Yeah, yeah, Well I don't know, it doesn't matter, but
I think serving it then is good.

Speaker 5 (58:51):
Yeah. So I mean, in all seriousness, he's currently suspended
sports are is going to appeal. We'll see where that lands,
and I certainly we expect that appeal to be completed
prior to the game against New England this week. But
but they would be three and eight, and then you
start to wonder about what the implications are for Joe Burrow,

(59:12):
who's working his way back, and they've they've said that
that Joe Burrow is pushing to come back and play,
and the plan is still for that to happen. But
does being three and eight. If they were three and eight,
does that alter the game plan or the approach at all.
I'm not totally sure, but that's obviously a big storyline
in Cincinnati this week, and especially with the Ravens facing

(59:33):
them on Thanksgiving Night. It's all connected.

Speaker 4 (59:35):
Yep.

Speaker 2 (59:36):
Absolutely, that'll be one thing to watch this week. Well,
thank you for listening.

Speaker 1 (59:39):
As always, you can reach us at the Lounge at
Ravens dot NFL dot net and we will be back
with you later this week to talk about more news
from the week and preview that big game coming up
against the Jets.