New Baltimore Ravens head coach Jesse Minter insists second-year kicker Tyler Loop is still his guy despite the club adding competition.
The club on Monday signed former third-round kicker Jake Moody to the practice squad. The move came after Loop missed two kicks in the Ravens' preseason finale on Aug. 28 and went 5-of-8 during the exhibition season.
Loop infamously also botched a 44-yard last-second field goal in the Ravens' Week 18 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers last season.
Despite the optics, Minter backed Loop during his media session on Monday.
"I have a lot of confidence in Tyler still," Minter said, via ESPN. "He's had a great training camp. I expect him to be our kicker going into (the Sept. 13 season opener in) Indianapolis. ... But you're always trying to just have every scenario covered. And so that's what we're trying to do as a team."
The Ravens didn't bring in competition for Loop, a 2025 sixth-round pick, during the offseason. However, as his struggles continued, the club signed Moody, who the Washington Commanders released in mid-August.
Minter's experience with Moody adds to the intrigue of the addition. The coach and kicker were together at Michigan in 2022.
"Jake's just kind of been on the radar," Minter said. "He's a guy that's had success in this league and really just felt like adding a guy. It's whatever's best for the team at that particular moment. So we added a guy to compete on the practice squad and see how it shakes out from there."
Moody struggled as a mid-round draft pick in San Francisco before eventually being waived following two missed field goals in the 2025 opener. He bounced around from there, playing for Chicago and Washington last season. The fourth-year kicker knows what sort of pressure Loop is under entering a pivotal stretch.
The 25-year-old Loop might not have lost his job yet, but he's clearly on thin ice in Baltimore.
