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The Ravens Justin Tucker has been a top kicker in the league the past several years, and already has a ring, a pro bowl berth, and a first team All-Pro selection to his name at the ripe age of 24. With a career 90.4% conversion rate on field goals, and a 100% rate on extra points, Tucker is thought to currently be among the top kickers in the NFL. But with his 100th career field goal converted last week against Oakland, Tucker has found himself among the top kickers in a historic context too:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">In OAK, <a href="https://twitter.com/jtuck9">@jtuck9</a> became the fastest kicker in NFL history to reach 100 career field goals (50 games). He beat out Hall of Famer Jan Stenerud.</p>— Ryan Mink (@ryanmink) <a href="https://twitter.com/ryanmink/status/647078733380231169">September 24, 2015</a></blockquote>
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As Ryan Mink noted, Tucker just beat out Hall of Fame kicker Jan Stenerud. Tucker reached 100 converted field goals in just 50 games. Stenerud, the only player in the Hall of Fame who exclusively played kicker, did it in 53. Stenerud, a 6 time Pro Bowler, retiried in 1985 after 19 seasons, holding the NFL record for most career field goals — a record that stood 13 years. His 373 career field goals and seven seasons of scoring 100 or more points were also NFL records at the time, although they have since been surpassed many time by the likes of Morten Andersen, Gary Anderson, Adam Vinateri, Matt Stover, David Akers and more.
Tucker is in elite company as a kicker, converting a league high 90.351% of his field goals. The only other kicker to be above 90% is Cowboys kicker Dan Bailey, who has been at it only one year longer than Tucker. Time will tell whether they can maintain this pace, but one thing is for sure- Tucker will surely be considered among the best of all time if he can stay healthy and play into his mid to late 30's like most modern day kickers.