The Ravens ended their mandatory minicamp on Wednesday in the same fashion they ended their 2025 season: a Tyler Loop field goal.
More than five months after Loop's missed 44-yarder extinguished their playoff hopes in Week 18, the ball this time from 40 yards out, sending Baltimore's players into summer vacation as winners. It was also a good reason to ask Loop how he has handled the fallout from his wide right attempt in early January.
"I would say the biggest thing that I did was acknowledge and accept it," Loop explained on Wednesday. "It took a day or two. I would say moving on from the kick itself was pretty easy. Just because I know you've got to be ready for the next kick. You've got to be able to put it behind you. Confident in the process that I've developed. The biggest part in moving on was just letting the people I care about and the people that care about me know that I'm good.
"Nothing's changed for me. I still feel confident in my abilities. Once I let the people who care about me and love me know that hey I'm good, then it was easy to move on."
Loop's miss in the final seconds of Baltimore's Week 18 loss to Pittsburgh cost the Ravens the AFC North title and a playoff berth, resulting in a brutal conclusion to Loop's first NFL season.
Following Loop's miss and Baltimore's loss, the Ravens parted with longtime coach John Harbaugh, replaced him with former Ravens assistance and Chargers defensive coordinator Jesse Minter, and spent the offseason resupplying the roster. Loop's job was never in doubt, though; after a 30 for 34 season, the Ravens were pleased with what they received from their sixth-round pick in his first professional campaign.
Now comes the test of Loop's resilience. After ending 2025 with a heartbreaking miss, his first attempt of 2026 will draw extra attention, a moment for which Loop can only prepare by converting practice kicks like the one he drilled on Wednesday.
"I think any time that's your position as you go through high school, college, all the way up, you realize that you have to live through some good times and bad times," Minter said on Wednesday. "It's a process-driven position. You have to just be able to flush out bad things that happen. Trust your process. I thought he had a really good rookie year overall, but of course we're judged by some of our biggest moments. We want to create opportunities for him to have these moments in front of people – in front of the team. To continue to have those opportunities, and certainly glad he knocked that one through."
Baltimore's fanbase has long lived in a world of privilege as far as kicking is concerned. The Ravens spent 13 years trusting Justin Tucker to convert, and save for an underwhelming final season in 2024, he never finished below a conversion rate of 82.5 percent in any of his first 12 years.
That's a high bar for Loop to reach. Although his most memorable kick of his rookie season was a miss, he largely stabilized the position at a time in which the situation easily could have descended into revolving door territory.
Year 2 will be about building on his successes -- and moving on from that one failure.
"No one wishes they had that kick back more than me, but gotta move on," Loop said.
