Disgraced former Ravens kicker Justin Tucker to try out for Saints

Here are those free agent kicker tryouts New Orleans Saints fans were looking for. On Monday, NFL Media's Mike Garafolo and Ian Rapoport first reported that former Baltimore Ravens kicker Justin Tucker was working out for the Saints after Blake Grupe missed two field goals in Sunday's loss to the Atlanta Falcons. NewOrleans.Football's Nick Underhill confirmed that report and added that former LSU Tigers kicker Cade York would also be trying out.

Early this year, The Baltimore Banner published accusations from half a dozen massage therapists alleging that Tucker sexually harassed them during private treatment sessions; ten others shared similar allegations afterwards. An NFL investigation found he violated the league's personal conduct policy, leading to a 10-game suspension to start the 2025 season. Tucker denied those claims but did not appeal the suspension.

But even if Tucker didn't have these allegations trailing him, he's still old and washed up. He just turned 36 and made a career-low 73.3% of his field goals last year. Grupe, who so many Saints fans are eager to eject, has connected on 69.2% of his tries and ranks 32nd out of 35 kickers. Tucker would rank 31st. He would offer a marginal upgrade without being a real solution for the problem next year.

While Cade York is much younger (he was drafted by the Cleveland Browns in 2022), he hasn't been much better. York hit just 75% of his field goals in his rookie year and was cut the next summer, bouncing around the league until he landed on the Cincinnati Bengals practice squad last season. He appeared in five games and hit 81.8% of his field goals, which is respectable enough, but that's a really small sample size. It's hard to find a good kicker this late in the game. Maybe the Saints would be better off giving Charlie Smyth a turn after two years on their practice squad. This tryout could be part of answering that question.

This article originally appeared on Saints Wire: Report: Saints work out free agent kickers Justin Tucker, Cade York