Kicking The Tires On Aguayo
April 6th, 2016
A kicker in the Bucs’ future?
The kicking game of the Bucs was just, well, so-so last year.
It began horribly with the immortal Kyle Brindza.
And while Bucs fans want to forget Brindza, his brutal kicking at Houston likely cost the Bucs a win. The guy couldn’t hit the Gulf of Mexico if he jumped off a pier.
Brindza was jettisoned and former Bucs kicker Connor Barth was brought back. Barth made 23 of 28 attempts, which put him at No. 25 in field goal accuracy last year. Not exactly something to brag about.
So could the Bucs be eyeing an upgrade? And could the Bucs ponder the thought of bringing in the top kicker in college football, Roberto Aguayo? Joe Kania of Buccaneers.com took a look.
While with the Seminoles, Aguayo proved to be one of the most accurate kickers in college football history. In his three years at Florida State, Aguayo converted on 88.46% of his kicks, which is the third-best conversation rate in FCS history. Florida State scored 94 touchdowns during Aguayo’s three seasons and he converted on every single extra point he attempted.
Some draft experts have Aguayo graded as high as a second-round pick, but the former Seminole has been vocal about his desire to join Winston in Tampa Bay. … Should the Buccaneers be looking at Aguayo? Some scouts believe he is worth the high price he may command.
Of course, kicking in the NFL and kicking in college are different animals. Ditches are paved with the carcasses of good college kickers who didn’t do squat in the NFL.
Drafting a kicker in the second round, especially as high as the Bucs will be picking, is a helluva gamble. That written, the Raiders sure came out smelling like a rose picking Sebastian Janikowski in the first round in 2000. After 16 seasons, Janikowski is still kicking for the Raiders.
Pretty solid investment.
April 6th, 2016 at 5:18 am
Id love aguayo. Def not with that 2nd rounder tho. If he’s there in the third thats a diff story. Im starting to think they are gona surprise in the first round and go offense. To me that means 2nd round ya gota go DE or DT. 16 years of accurate kicking is hard to argue with tho
April 6th, 2016 at 5:58 am
The upgrade in the coaching staff is enough to get our defense to middle of the pack. One second round pick for a dependable kicker will pay off in the long run. Too many missed extra points around the league last year. Solidify the position for the future….the Bucs will be scoring a lot of TDs.
April 6th, 2016 at 6:29 am
Not only has moving extra points back given kickers a hugher value, I believe moving the touchback spot out to the 25 that its going to make teams want to put it within the five to ten on high kickoffs resulting in the need for a higher skill level kicker, and a good return man
April 6th, 2016 at 6:32 am
Yeah but how well has that Janikowski pick really worked out. Ohb that’s right they haven’t had to think kicker with there top 5 pick almost every year since. Great kicker had no correlation to wins!
April 6th, 2016 at 7:14 am
Destro44 – The Raiders haven’t had to worry about their kicking situation for 16 years, and Janikowski will be a hall of famer. I would say it’s worked out just fine for them. Use your brain.
April 6th, 2016 at 7:29 am
If he’s available in the third or fourth round snd we have an extra picl from trading Glennon, then go for it.
April 6th, 2016 at 7:49 am
Agree with Phreaky
April 6th, 2016 at 7:49 am
You cant take a kicker in the 2nd round period. Kickers are more valuable now ( a little) because of the xtra point rule change, but not a 2nd rounder. He would be a luxury pick for a team that can’t afford it. Someone like the patriots or packers could afford it , but not the bucs. Seabass went to early too, but went to a team that was on the verge of a SuperBowl. Also, he hasn’t proven to be much better than other kickers, Even though he is on their roster, doesn’t mean it was a good pick… I think taking Shaun Alexander would have been wiser.
April 6th, 2016 at 8:18 am
I’m an FSU alum, and I love me some Aguayo, but not at a 2nd round price. 3rd-4th? Hell yes, but not in the 2nd. Too much else must be addressed first.
April 6th, 2016 at 8:26 am
He will be gone by the end of the 2nd. He is special. Remember that the first SEVEN all time scorers in the NFL are kickers. Gramatica is the Bucs all time scorer. Scoring more points than the other team wins games.
April 6th, 2016 at 8:32 am
Oh, and how many NFL games are decided by a field goal kicked in the final seconds of the game? Almost 25% of games.
April 6th, 2016 at 8:46 am
@ were all going to die
You May be right about Janikowskibh being a hall of fame kicker, but look art the Raiders record during his 16 years. It isn’t pretty. Would you rathet be set at kicker for 16 years or maybe LT, DE, Safety for the next 10 years. I’m sorry I was a kicker in my playing days and even I can’t value a kicker that much. I’ll say it again kickers don’t equal wins, I’m sure Denver’s kicker was adequate to good last, and most playoff teams invluded. Maybe we need a list of the best statistical kickers in the league and there teams records to solve this.
Side note, just because I think kickers don’t present enough value to draft high, doesn’t mean a terrible kicker can’t doom a team, see Kyle Brindza.
April 6th, 2016 at 8:53 am
Conner was middle of the pack last season. The only way you can call him 25th in NFL 2015 percentage is if you count kickers that had one chip shot kick and call that him a 100% kicker. Barth was 17/17 inside 40 yards but missed a few log ones late in the season from a tied leg due to working on his kick off length before the season.
I agree Aguayo is a great kicker and I wouldn’t be disappointed if the Bucs picked him in the 4th or later. Aguayo would have been picked earlier if he could of come out a year earlier.
Aguayo was 20 of 26, 80% Barth was 22 of 28, 82% in 2015
April 6th, 2016 at 8:56 am
I say we draft all FSU players, so Winston will play for free.
April 6th, 2016 at 9:08 am
What OAR said!!! No more salary cap issues!
I like Aguayo, sure. Kicker, however, is very low on the priority list going into the draft. We better be looking to bolster that d-line.
April 6th, 2016 at 9:25 am
Kickers in the 5th round or later. Which of our draft picks from last year would you rather have Aguayo over? Lets pass on D Smith or Kwon or Ali and take a kicker…. yeah right
April 6th, 2016 at 9:50 am
I’m a Nole and if they draft Aguayo in the 2nd, I’m going to drive to One Buc and punch Licht directly in the face.
April 6th, 2016 at 10:15 am
This kid will be a great kicker in the NFL..for somebody. Just not the Bucs! We just have to many pressing needs at other positions. If circumstances were different..I would take him in the 2nd round. But we..gotta get our Defense going if we expect to be competitive in the NFC South this year.
April 6th, 2016 at 10:44 am
I can state with clear authority there is no such thing in 2016 as a kicker having a “tired leg” in the regular season. Maybe some, briefly, in the pre-season, but not the regular season.
JUGS and specialty resistance training and conditioning have taken care of that.
April 6th, 2016 at 10:44 am
Barth is an 85% lifetime kicker and is 69% from 50+ yards in his career. (3 of 5 in 2015) He missed a couple kicks in the 40-49 range last year that he shouldn’t have but is pretty steady in general IMO.
Hell NO to drafting a kicker unless you can get a great prospect in the 6th or 7th round.
April 6th, 2016 at 10:45 am
its a long shot because we have so many other needs…I would love for him to be in a bucs uni…GO BUCS!!!
April 6th, 2016 at 10:55 am
I wouldn’t mind spending a 3rd on him, especially if we get a 3rd for Glennon. Basically, I’d trade Glennon for Aguayo.
How many 2nd round picks have we wasted? Right now, I’d trade ASJ for this guy. A 3rd for a “sure thing” kicker is far less of a risk than ASJ, Brian Price, bad Dexter Jackson, Daquan Bowers.
April 6th, 2016 at 11:47 am
Just say No! The argument that our high draft picks have sucked in the past is not a good argument…we need to get our draft issues fixed – we just have way to many holes on this team to think kicker before round 6
April 6th, 2016 at 12:03 pm
Yeah, we need to get a better sample size from ASJ before calling the pick a bust. Besides, kickers in general are a dime a dozen and there is no guarantee that Aguayo will be as good in the NFL.
April 6th, 2016 at 1:06 pm
Too many other issues. I wouldn’t draft him unless every other need was addressed first. Both Barth and Murray (still on the roster) are pretty good. I wouldn’t draft a kicker unless there’s no one left on our board that Licht feels could make the team. I feel like 4th and 5th round safety or linebacker is still making the team as a ST and development player.
April 6th, 2016 at 1:16 pm
cobraboy-
What’s your clear authority?
I’m not friends with Conner but I spoke with a mutual friend of ours and ex buccaneer kicker who trained with him in the off season. He confirmed what I already knew by watching him kick. I just checked my phone and I have 9 (former and current) NFL kickers numbers in there. Don’t embarrass yourself by correcting me.
April 6th, 2016 at 1:55 pm
Stanglassman Says:
April 6th, 2016 at 1:56 pm
Let the battle of the kickers begin!
April 6th, 2016 at 1:57 pm
Sorry about butchering the blockquote. The proper edit:
Stanglassman Says:
It’s what I did for a living back in The Day. HS & college before that. Many here weren’t even born yet.
Coached ST at the Div. I level as a grad asst.
A few folks here know my story.
April 6th, 2016 at 2:35 pm
Cobraboy-
Remember Conner was back in Va. working on his KO length so that hami got quite a workout the 1st few weeks of the season without any coaches around regulating his rep numbers. By week 10 his follow through was not right. That’s when I picked up the phone and found out he was babying it a bit to get through the season. I get your point that ‘tired leg’ has been mitigated by advancement in training and limiting reps but fatigue dose still happen.
April 6th, 2016 at 3:08 pm
Stanglassman Says:
Not trying to argue. I will say that today’s kickers are completely different physical animals that when I was involved. MUCH better athletes without any doubt, which is why I discount the fatigue factor.
It’s possible to miss kicks because you just didn’t hit the ball correctly for a variety of reasons that have nothing to do with fatigue. While I want to be sympathetic to “fatigued leg syndrome” it’s difficult to buy into it because these guys train year round, are generally in top shape.
Never happened to me for more than maybe two days after arriving to training camp. Back then the preseason was absurdly long mainly because guys had to work a regular job in the off-season since we didn’t make anywhere near the kind of $$$ the current guys—even the rooks, FA’s and practice squad—do. We had *zero* OTA’s, guys hanging around playing catch, etc.; the most off-season contact we had was a letter of expectations, a follow-up phone call from our position coach (unless he got fired and didn’t know you—been there) and a plane ticket or gas money arriving by mail. So TC was where you got into shape.
I like Connor Barth. His Achilles issue was highly unfortunate and I’m surprised he made it back as well as he did. If anything that could make some difference because a long layoff like he had can strip the top 1% of your game—and that can be the difference between being really good (Barth last season) and totally awesome (Barth pre-Achilles.) I don’t know for sure, but it may be that Barth’s standard leg swing doesn’t have the juice it once did (that 1%), and he had to give extra effort on longer kicks. Extra effort increases the likelihood of less accuracy. It also makes you want to look up too soon. Bad juju.
Compound his season last year with the fact that kickers have become increasingly more accurate over time (I predict fewer miss PAT’s this season.) He can have a good season but look mediocre by comparison.
Remember something else: his comeback was in Denver. Balls fly differently there because of less air resistance. That can change your approach to how you train and what you think you can do at a given distance. Kicking in Tampa is like kicking in a sauna, thick air where balls don’t want to fly as well.
I wish Barth well, admire his comeback, but as a Bucs fan would love to see the K position upgraded with Barth coming to camp with improved tools, Murray coming like he did in ’14, or a new guy with mega-juice coming off a knee problem (but I suspect the knee isn’t bad and they just want to keep him around like they did Kenny Bell.)
I don’t see a strong need to spend a high pick on a kicker this draft. Aguayo would be a nice addition, but not necessary.
April 6th, 2016 at 6:09 pm
I think if kickers are going to be asked to kick high, accurate kickoffs that land within the five yard line, that is much harder than an extra point on the 15. Both those considered it may be worth spending a second on a kicker if he’s something special. Above average 3rd or 4th. Unless you want to give the other team the ball on the 25 yard line every kickoff. Than again, you need to score points in order to kickoff so maybe some teams won’t really care.
April 6th, 2016 at 8:12 pm
Schmidt- I agree and think this will work in Conner’s favor.
Cobraboy- I’m sure we could get into a good long in depth convo re: kicking philosophy, our history etc… I’d enjoy that. I kicked in high school here in Tampa and at FSU in the early 90’s. I competed against Mallery and Thomas mainly. Thomas was much better of the two Dan’s parents were besties with Bobby so there was no chance in beating him out. My kicking coach (Friend now) was Carlos Huerta. We haven’t in awhile but we use to get together with Michael Husted, Dustin and Geno and kick in the Summer. Michael’s got a kicking camp going now. The craziest dude I’ve ever kicked with was Sabastian that guy reinvented the way a lot of younger guys kicks. It’s so powerful and loud it’s ridiculous. It’s more like the rugby punts it looks like he topping it but somehow it just create energy through the ball and it just goes. BTW I agree with you re: the Bucs drafting a Aguayo. If they decide to I wouldn’t consider it a waste in the 4th or later. I never met Conner and never dealt with an achilles injury but I did pull a hami working on my kick off distance so I do know what that’s look like.
April 6th, 2016 at 11:11 pm
I’d enjoy that conversation.
I had no coach, ever, 100% self-taught. My song ended in ’76/’77 with a bad neck injury.
And I’m Old School: I was among the last of the breed of toe kickers. Maybe Mark Mosely (who used my shoe design) was, but as a group we died…
I did enjoy my two-year stint as a grad asst. who *really* was the ST coach…before there was such a thing as ST college coaches. Had offers to go full-time into ST coaching after grad school, but the hours were long, I wouldn’t enjoy recruiting, and the money sucked. I didn’t need football *that* bad…
April 7th, 2016 at 3:37 am
I think at this point after addressing every need in free agency that we had he may be worth a first round pick at #9 and I would not be mad one bit if we took him in the first either because we could’ve been in the playoffs last year if we had a great kicker last season. He’s a kicker that came out early I mean let’s take a lifetime gamble since we have our franchise qb that can make every thing look better so let’s get the guy who makes the ultimate clutch play which is a game winning field goal.