BALTIMORE — Kicker Justin Tucker is the last remaining player on the current roster from the Ravens’ 2012 Super Bowl team.
He had praise for his teammates as they prepare for the AFC Championship Game against the Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday at 3 p.m. at M&T Bank Stadium.
“You just have to stay focused on the task at hand, stay focused on one game at a time, and then break it down into smaller parts than that,” Tucker said. “That’s something that we’ve been talking about the whole season. Our team leadership and everybody … I don’t think I can leave out a name when I talk about team leadership. It’s part of the reason why we don’t put the ‘C’s on our jerseys because everybody in this room is respected for whatever version of leadership that they bring to the table.
“That all [being] said, our leadership, like the veteran guys, the heartbeat of our team – Lamar Jackson, Roquan Smith, Patrick Queen [and] Kevin Zeitler.”
At age 34, Tucker is still one of the best kickers in the NFL. This past season, Tucker made the Pro Bowl for the seventh time. He led the Ravens with a franchise-record 147 total points. He also converted 32 of 37 field-goal attempts (86.5 percent) — his NFL record ninth season reaching at least 30 field goals made.
The goal is to get a second Super Bowl ring.
“We’ve all talked about taking it one step at a time, one play at a time, one meeting at a time [and] one pain-staking training camp practice at a time, knowing that we have the potential to put ourselves on a glorious road, to put all of our fingerprints on Tiffany Silver in a few weeks,” Tucker said. “That’s something that we have talked about. It’s real, and it’s out there for the taking. This team I think is built to handle the challenge accordingly.”