Justin Tucker accepted a 10-week suspension last month stemming from accusations of sexual misconduct. Tom Pelissero sees a real chance for him to play again. He has multiple obstacles to overcome, though, on and off the field. Signing him would create a PR nightmare for any team, but he also hasn’t been great lately.
Deshaun Watson managed to survive his process for similar offenses, but he is also a quarterback. Teams will always bend over backwards for a guy they think can win them a Super Bowl. Justin Tucker may be the greatest kicker ever, but that’s not enough. No team whose best player is their kicker has ever won a Super Bowl.
Tucker could have appealed the suspension, but Pelissero argues declining is in his best interests. The 10-week suspension is part of a negotiation, suggesting the NFL sought a longer one. But because he agreed not to appeal, they settled on a lesser punishment.
“For Justin Tucker to have a chance to play again in the NFL, his best option was going to be accepting a suspension that was slightly under Deshaun Watson. It’s 10 weeks, not 10 games”, Pelissero told Rich Eisen, which means he could potentially play eight games this season, in theory. Unfortunately, almost everybody uses games and weeks interchangeably, but there’s an important distinction, and I’m not sure who’s wrong. Pelissero specified not games but weeks, which would include a potential bye weeks. Ordinarily, the NFL suspends people by games.
But there’s an even bigger factor, arguably, for Tucker to decline the appeals process. “In addition to that, you also avoid what we had in the Watson case, which was hundreds of pages of documents and testimony and evidence becoming public”, Pelissero pointed out.
I’m sure you recall all the details included in the testimonies from the Deshaun Watson appeals process. While there is already reporting out there surrounding Justin Tucker, the NFL has more. As part of their investigation, they interviewed many of his accusers, and it would be fresh testimony. Potentially—indeed, likely—worse than what is already out there.
Another element Pelissero pointed out is that there is now a clear timeline for Justin Tucker. He and NFL teams wouldn’t know when there might be a ruling if he appealed, and what the outcome would be. And by midseason, perhaps there will be a team needing a kicker.
“This allows him to say, ‘I’m accepting the suspension. I’m going to have my shot at redemption’”, he said. He added that he “would not be surprised at all” if a team signed Tucker. He is, after all, the most accurate kicker in NFL history.
But he’ll also be 36 years old in November and he missed 26.7 percent of his field goal attempts. He even missed two extra points, giving him a combined 10 missed kicks. Even if half of them were from 50-plus yards, that’s not going to have people beating down Justin Tucker’s door.
Nor will the allegations levelled against him. Tucker is not a player at a position of great value. While it’s nice to have a great kicker, teams largely view them as fungible. There’s always another kicker you can sign, and plenty of good ones have come off the scrap heap. Chris Boswell, arguably now the greatest kicker in the league, is just one of them.
