Meet Ravens Rookie Kicker Tyler Loop, Who Loves the Big Stage
Tyler Loop was the first kicker ever drafted by the Ravens, but the NFL wasn't always his dream.
By Matt Ryan
As Tyler Loop settled into his parents' house to watch the NFL Draft, he took a moment to the side.
Loop and his fiancé decided to say a prayer before their lives changed forever.
"Just asking God, 'Bring us where you want us ... but we kind of want Baltimore.'"
Loop's nerves rose when the Ravens picked three other players before him on Day 3, but then his phone rang. He saw the 410-area code and knew his prayer was being answered.
The Ravens selected Loop with the No. 186 overall pick, making him the first kicker ever drafted by Baltimore. Now, after the release of Justin Tucker, Loop is the favorite to be the Ravens' place kicker in 2025.
However, playing football wasn't always his goal.
Finding Football
Growing up outside of Dallas, Loop wanted to be a professional soccer player. He swam, ran track, and played lacrosse in his early years, but soccer was his main love.
His leg was special. One of Loop's coaches even convinced Tyler's dad, Steve, to build his son a wall that he could boot balls into.
Eventually, Steve took Tyler to a local football field to see what he could do. "Just humor me," he told his son.
"He was kicking 55-yard field goals in the seventh grade," Steve said.
Steve pushed Tyler to show his middle school coach what he could do, and that's where it all began. Tyler balanced kicking for Lovejoy High School while starring for the soccer team, and one day after a soccer game, he told his parents his long-term plan.
Tyler was going to play in the Premier League when he was older. But then he added a disclaimer: If not, he would kick in the NFL.
Through the years, Tyler's love for kicking grew. He became infatuated with the mechanical side, learning every detail to diagnose his swing. He began training with Kohl's Kicking and turned into one of the top kickers in the nation. By the time he was a senior, Tyler had quit soccer and was kicking full time.
"At one point, Tyler said, 'Look, Dad, you may have 1,000 people show up to a Division I soccer game. You get 100,000 people to show up to a Division I football game. I'm doing that,'" Steve recalled.
Tyler committed to Arizona and became one of the most storied kickers in program history. His 62-yard field goal last season set a Wildcat record, and he leads all Arizona kickers with an 83.75% field goal percentage over his five-year career.
With a sold-out crowd on the road against Deion Sanders-coached Colorado, Tyler booted a 52-yard field goal and capped his day with a game-winner.
Tyler wanted the spotlight, and he got his wish.
Seeking the Moment
Tyler was on a local swim team as a 3-year-old, and after the meets, everyone would sit back and watch as he closed things out.
Wearing swim trunks and floaties, Tyler would climb to the top of the diving board and make sure the couple hundred people in attendance had their eyes on him.
"Talk about wanting the spotlight," Tyler's mom, Linda, said.
Not much has changed since.
Tyler has always been a player who relishes the moment. Steve said that most people see their heart rate tick up when the pressure is on, but Tyler is the opposite.
"He feels in his element," Steve said. "If there's a point where somebody needs to have the ball and it needs to be on him, he wants to be the guy."
Kicker can be an isolating position, out there on an island. In the ultimate team sport, some people see it as an individual position, but Tyler disagrees.
He knows in the biggest moments his teammates, coaches, and fans are all counting on him to come through.
"I get to have your back now, and I get to go do this. I couldn't do what I do without the other guys. When it comes down to it, and it's like, ‘Hey, we need you to do this.’ I can say, ‘Yeah, I got your back. I'm going to do it.’" — Tyler Loop
Having the clutch gene is one of the most pivotal parts of kicking, and Tyler has proven throughout his career that the pressure isn't too much.
When Tyler was a sophomore, Lovejoy trailed in the final minute of a state playoff soccer game. Tyler came in off the bench with the season on the line, and Steve and Linda knew exactly how it was going to end.
"Linda and I looked at each other. There's a certain body posture that Tyler gets when it's go time, when it's that moment," Steve said. "And I think we both knew when we looked at that, it's like, 'Oh no, here it goes. He's going to score.'"
Tyler did, and Lovejoy won on penalties.
Morgan Lineberry, a Kohl's Kicking coach who has worked with NFL kickers such as Cade York and Austin Seibert, started coaching Tyler when he was a freshman. Lineberry has seen Tyler's affinity for those big moments as a kicker, from high school to college, and soon the NFL.
"Not only is he accepting of wanting to go on that stage, he relishes that because ultimately that's what it is, you're on an island," Lineberry said. "You have to be comfortable with all eyes on you, and you have to be able to step on the stage and call on it."
'Know God and Make Him Known'
Tyler went to church every week growing up and entered Arizona as a man of faith. But one day, early in college, his teammate and housemate, Blake Pfaff, decided to talk to him.
Pfaff felt that while Tyler saw himself as a man of strong faith, his actions weren't reflecting that.
"He's like, 'Hey, I care about you and I love you. When I look at your life, I don't see someone who loves God and loves other people.' We had a lot of conversations about that, and it took a while for me to really understand," Tyler said. "Finally, it clicked for me."
Tyler altered his life from there, focusing on exhibiting his beliefs rather than just saying them. Tyler said that looking back, he "didn't have a heart that was loving" and described himself as "arrogant" and "not humble."
Now, that's far from the case.
"I think my description around Tyler is [he] has a servant's heart. He's very unselfish. He thinks of others first. And I think he gets a lot of pleasure out of serving others and making a difference in other people's lives." — Steve Loop
Tyler joined student ministry at Arizona and developed a strong circle of people around him, including his fiancée, Julia Otto. The two were friends for most of college before they started dating during Tyler's last year at Arizona and got engaged in March.
"What stands out about Tyler, then (as friends) and even now, is how intentional he is with his relationships," Otto said. "If Tyler cares about someone, he's extremely loyal and he's willing to do just about anything, drop anything for that person. In his conversations, he's really intentional with what he says, how he says it, how he treats people. ... He's quick to point everyone back to the hope that we have in Christ."
After the shift in his faith, Tyler lives by the mission to "know God and make Him known."
He's consistently working to improve the world around him, whether it's helping fund mission trips, or using his experience in American Sign Language to communicate with the deaf on mission trips of his own.
God helped him become a better person, and he's hoping to pass that along.
"I just started to see my relationships with people change," Tyler said. "How I cared for my teammates changed. How I viewed even kicking and sports and stuff like that. It was no longer something for me, it was something that I could use to be generous with the financial gain that comes with it [and] use my platform to speak in other people's lives in a loving way. It just changed my entire purpose and goal and vision for life."
