Aguayo Scheme Hatched Before Draft
May 4th, 2016
Licht talks playing poker on national radio.
A hardcore-Bucs-fan friend fired off a text to Joe minutes after AC/DC-loving general manager Jason Licht pulled the trigger on the trade up to draft kicker Roberto Aguayo in the second round.
The text read, “Ask Licht how many beers he had before he showed up at the office tonight.”
Well, the answer would be none. But the selection of Aguayo was decided far earlier than it would have taken a barmaid to pour a few drinks. Yesterday, Licht told of the trade mechanics to popular sports radio and TV personality Adam Schein. The move(s) was decided before Round 1 of the draft began.
In fact, it was because of Aguayo, Licht told the “Mad Dog Radio” audience, heard exclusively on SiriusXM Radio, that he traded back in the first round.
“Our gut instinct in this case was that [Vernon Hargreaves] wouldn’t go to the Giants, that we could still go back and get him at No. 11. And [by consummating the trade] it would allow us to pick up a pick that I wanted to use to ensure we got the kicker,” Licht said.
So Licht entered the first night of the draft, Thursday, with the clear intent to stock ammo for the acquisition of Aguayo. And if by chance he lost Hargreaves , he had other options.
Damn, that is ballsy.
And in the same interview, Licht said that while Hargreaves was his target in the first round, when the Bucs were on the clock at No. 11, the two top targets of the Bucs were both on the board at No. 11. Licht did not say who the second target would have been had the Giants crossed him up.
So this was not some wild hair up his rear end by Licht to draft Aguayo. It was planned all along to do so.
May 4th, 2016 at 7:19 am
My guess is Eli if VH had been picked by the Giants. Maybe Joseph or Neal. Bottom line is we didnt have to spend our own 4th to move back into the 2nd for Roberto. People hating this move will understand why once the results start paying off. Bellicheat doesnt have many holes and had many reasons to spend one of his next 2 picks in the second on Roberto.
May 4th, 2016 at 7:32 am
MadMax great point and I salute the Giants for not taking VH3, they must-have known his heart was in Tampa.
May 4th, 2016 at 7:46 am
I wonder who the 2nd target was. Also, banking on the giants not taking vh3 because they just spent a ton on jaNorris Jenkins and were solid at cb was smart, but then the giants draft a different cb… crazy.
May 4th, 2016 at 7:47 am
Madmax
Dont the pats have gostkowski? No way the pats take a kicker. N yes karl joseph would have been a nice add, or rankins. Either way, welcome roberto!
May 4th, 2016 at 7:56 am
Check it if it were any other GM in the league that had taken VH3 in 1st and Spawn in the 2nd they would be calling him a genius. Roberto was just icing.
May 4th, 2016 at 8:02 am
in honestly loving these picks so much more every time I think about it. We very well may have gotten another grand slam. I’m banking on vh3 and spence to show out and earn good playing time, even if spence is rotational (but then again who isn’t on Dline). We got our new starting kicker, and we may have gotten yet another 4th round steal to play safety. And if we get really lucky, we might have gotten a future starting right tackle and a starting SAM in the making! And let’s not forget our new superback!! Now we might not get a bunch of immediate starters right out of the gate but damn this is a pretty good looking bunch of value rookies we got! Let’s get excited Tampa bay!! Go bucs!
May 4th, 2016 at 8:03 am
the one thing,i am not sure is a good idea is telling everybody his strategy.
A good poker player doesn’t want a tell.Licht is giving out imfo that may be best kept secret.
May 4th, 2016 at 8:04 am
Soooo looking forward to talking about a kicker for the next 3 months, yawn
May 4th, 2016 at 8:08 am
Pass rush and d line play is overrated
Who wants a stout defensive line anyway right?
It wouldn’t have made any sense to draft a few lineman in the deepest draft for them in 10 years especially since we put so much pressure on teams qb’s
May 4th, 2016 at 8:14 am
Their seems to be a level of disdain for us in the media thru out the league( its fear). Because of this I hope this team embraces being the bad guys. F@$!’em all I say.
May 4th, 2016 at 8:25 am
Pass rush and d line play is totally overrated.
I mean who wants a stout defensive line anyway right?
It wouldn’t have made sense to draft a few lineman in the deepest draft for them in 10 years especially since we put some much pressure on qb’s
May 4th, 2016 at 8:26 am
My thought is that the Bucs staff (and i) doesn’t believe there a lot of holes to fill, so they could afford the luxury of a great kicker. The rest of the media, however, has no belief in the bucs. Good job Licht. Keep em comin.
May 4th, 2016 at 8:28 am
I would love to find out who that other target was, lol.
May 4th, 2016 at 8:29 am
Bucs are going to shock a lot of people this year. For the first time in a loooong time, I feel like we are truly on the verge. I said this time last year it would take another year…well it’s here and I like it.
We may or may not go all the way…but a winning season is coming for sure.
May 4th, 2016 at 8:30 am
BTW…I don’t know if Tampa is getting any of this rain, but I suggest unplugging electronics. This is a LOT of lightning.
May 4th, 2016 at 8:30 am
d-roca you’re right. But he is 32 (which is still young for kickers). I just remember they lost a game on a missed kick. Maybe Licht was worried they would trade the pick away for someone else wanting Roberto. NE is famous for trading down. I dont know. Bottom line, I guess when you see a guy you really want and need, you make sure you get him. We were lucky Spence fell into our spot in the 2nd. Might not have been so lucky if we had waited for Roberto where we picked in the 3rd.
NOSBOS the hate always comes our way…..and Exactly! F’em!
May 4th, 2016 at 8:34 am
Matt Cavallo BINGO..
May 4th, 2016 at 8:37 am
@98bucsfan I am with you 100% you hit it on the head. I had to sleep on it for a few days but I am more than thrilled to see the guys we picked up. Our UFA list is looking pretty stout too. Haven’t been this excited for a season in a long time.
May 4th, 2016 at 8:40 am
I thought the first 3 picks were sheer genius.
As soon as we got Hargreaves, I was calling for Spence.
Getting the kicker is just icing.
If these guys work out, this is two killer drafts in a row by Licht.
Build him a statue.
May 4th, 2016 at 9:04 am
Bill over in NE knows he has to get the team younger. Brady is reaching the end of his career, and Bill needs to build for a new era. Getting a young kicker makes sense…especially with their current kicker being 32. The word “trade bait” comes to mind.
May 4th, 2016 at 9:04 am
@ScottL
Three, if you think about it.
May 4th, 2016 at 9:09 am
@matt.. plenty of holes to fill. We don’t have much depth. You know the offense takes a major step back if evans or vjax goes down. The rush d suffers if mcdonald get hurt again, we saw that. Do we even have a safety we like, much less if someone goes down
Sure, as long as we are banking on rhe top 4 rds of draft picks to play at a probowl level, we are good.
May 4th, 2016 at 9:28 am
the marketing potential around eli apple playing for the giants was just too great to pass up on.
May 4th, 2016 at 9:33 am
mike n that could be said about every team in NFL. “IF”.
May 4th, 2016 at 9:38 am
I suspect the current D staff has a lot higher opinions of the D talent than the armchair gurus do.
Once again, it’s impossible to tell how much D talent the Bucs have because of bad coaching on an antiquated, horrendous scheme.
May 4th, 2016 at 9:39 am
BuccaneerBonzai Says:
Also keep in mind cap considerations.
May 4th, 2016 at 9:42 am
@Nole- good point! Every team is an injury away from having a bad season. Having good, starting-caliber depth at every position on a 53 man roster is next to impossible. Still, there were some interesting UDFA signed. The sky’s not falling, I’m optimistic about this team right now.
May 4th, 2016 at 10:07 am
@dickbuttkiss I agree we got some great depth with our UFA. Every bucs fan should quit listening to doubt from other people and start being positive because we just had a fantastic looking draft. Now as long as training camp goes well for the new guys we should be good to go!
May 4th, 2016 at 10:18 am
And this is why the Bucs fail year after year. It’s ok to target players but to be blinded by those Targets you covet
May 4th, 2016 at 10:19 am
Because he planned to get a kicker does not mean he should have gotten one.
Many dubious decisions are planned in advance.
May 4th, 2016 at 10:30 am
@noleon sat and bucfan… no not really. Sure every team is an injury away if their qb like big ben or rodgers goes down. But most good teams won’t see their offense dramatically change for the worse if the #2 wr goes down because they have good depth at many spots. Impossible to have depth at every spot and all teams are thin at a few spots, but we are thin at a lot of spots and the difference between our starters and back ups is greater than a lot of teams.
May 4th, 2016 at 10:51 am
I can’t believe the comments I’m reading here. There’s being a good, supportive fan and there’s being a Kool-Aid-drinking fool. Licht risked losing Hargreaves to get a kicker no one else in their right mind would have taken in the second round. A kicker, I might add, whose accuracy plummets to a coin flip past 40 yards. Making matters worse, the only thing that got him Hargreaves was the Giants happening to having Apple above him on their board. All this means the player the GM for a team with horrible pass coverage and a desperate need for a pass rusher coveted most was a kicker who becomes a 50-50 at 41 yards.
You have GOT to be kidding me! Why wasn’t this moron fired with Smith??
May 4th, 2016 at 11:00 am
@malevolentmuse…. you don’t understand! This was the best extra point kicker in the history of college football. Kickers are like quarterbacks, you can’t find a great one in free agency, you have to draft them early.
May 4th, 2016 at 11:09 am
bucs spend 2 high draft picks on a kicker when they had an decent kicker on the team . Praise this stupidity all u want but cost was way to high .
May 4th, 2016 at 11:12 am
HUH?
May 4th, 2016 at 11:58 am
Plan B was Rankins if NY had taken Hargreaves at 10.
As soon as I saw that Licht had gained an extra 4th round pick by trading back 2 spots in rd 1 – I assumed he would use that extra pick as ammo to move back into either the 2nd or 3rd round for a player they were targeting.
I was hoping pre-draft that we could land Aguayo. I’m not crazy about getting him in round 2 as that’s kind of expensive for a kicker considering we have need for more young talent on defense. But on the other hand – I am not unhappy that Licht did what he thought was necessary to get Aguayo – because this dude is not just any kicker. He will be one of if not the best kicker in the NFL (hopefully – fingers crossed).
May 4th, 2016 at 11:59 am
@malevolentmuse you are pretty ignorant to the fact that we just drafted guaranteed points. Also not to mention the fact that he is the most accurate kicker in ncaa history. He had a better percentage than janikowski coming out of college and he was drafted higher than aguayo. But that’s ok you will come around when he is winning us games.
May 4th, 2016 at 12:43 pm
BuccaneerBonzai Says:
May 4th, 2016 at 9:04 am
Bill over in NE knows he has to get the team younger. Brady is reaching the end of his career, and Bill needs to build for a new era. Getting a young kicker makes sense…especially with their current kicker being 32. The word “trade bait” comes to mind.
——————-
NE renewed the contract with their kicker right after the draft..like the very next day…so it was in their pan..now Gostkowski or whatever his name is has a new contract..but he didn’t the night of the draft.
May 4th, 2016 at 12:46 pm
not pan…PLAN…
May 4th, 2016 at 1:10 pm
@98 … nothing is garanteed in the PROs… who in the top 50 is good?
http://www.sports-reference.com/cfb/leaders/fg-pct-player-career.html
You just never know with kickers, just like everyone else!!!!
@lifeof Buc… Sorry, but Goskowski signed a 4 yr 17.5 million dollar contract 7/15/2015.
May 4th, 2016 at 1:32 pm
@mike The one that says Casey Barth is Connor. Garrett Hartley, nugent, catanzaro, for bath had some good years. I mean most aren’t good but out of the ones picked high in the draft, aguayo is in good company. Nugent and janikowski have had great careers. Just be positive about what we have. You can’t go back in time so you should just go with what our GM does. He has not given you a reason yet to doubt him.
May 4th, 2016 at 1:33 pm
Unless the Casey Barth is his brother or something but it says North Carolina which is where Connor went but idk
May 4th, 2016 at 1:42 pm
@Nuggent was terrible with the team that drafted him and benched in favor of Jay feely the he was cut by the Jets. Not very many kicker are drafted for a reason. Barth was like the 22nd best kicker last year, if he would have been top 5, then that would have ben equal to about 1/2 a point more per game. Kickers are important, but you take a blair walsh in the 6th round or you sign a few free agents. If you draft one high, its a luxury pick. It was a very deep draft, and we could have used 2 good prospects. Jameis is what we have and we should have given him another wr, you saw how bad we were without vjax.
True though, you can’t go back. Have to hope for the best.
May 4th, 2016 at 1:44 pm
@98 Yeah, casey is Connor’s little brother.
May 4th, 2016 at 1:50 pm
HUH,what you mean HUH??? When I say media I’m referencing people in front of cameras and micrphones not somone I’ll never see that writes column for a paper. When you can tell me where I can go to witness the Buccs being spoke of golwinngly then I’ll be sure to pick up the remote toon in. From what I see half the time they’re disinterested and quick to change the subject. Can barely get a freakin high light in while you round here talkin bout HUH.
May 4th, 2016 at 3:26 pm
Tunsil was the other player being considered
May 4th, 2016 at 9:45 pm
Licht already said he had no desire to draft a right tackle in the first round.
May 4th, 2016 at 9:47 pm
LOL Joe just embedded video of one today.
There is no conspiracy to loathe the Bucs. LOL
May 4th, 2016 at 10:49 pm
I was really mad at the pick for Aguayo for about 2 days, then read that Aguayo technically was our 3rd rounder because that’s all we gave up. We gave up our 3rd and a 4th we had just acquired the day before. When you realize he’s technically our 3rd it’s a great pick and great move by Licht. Could we have gotten better talent? Of course, I myself thought we were going to get billings. That being said, I’m still impressed with our draft even though we missed out on jeremy cash who ended up signing with the panthers as an UDFA
May 4th, 2016 at 11:20 pm
EVERY draft pick is risky. The only difference between round 1 and round 7 is the expectation of success. Yet NFL history is full of busts from all rounds and HOF players who have been undrafted. I try to imagine the fallout from fans and “Experts” when either Wentz or Goff goes bust, based on what their teams gave up to draft them. History dictates one of them most likely will. Yet I doubt it will reach the level of ridiculous ridicule our GM has received for using one extra mid level draft pick on a player who is statistically the best at his position in NCAA history. Let’s see how all this plays out in three or four years before we pass judgement
May 5th, 2016 at 5:02 am
[…] Joe brought word that Bucs AC/DC-loving general manager Jason Licht said the top two players they had targeted in the […]
May 5th, 2016 at 1:43 pm
Keep drinking the kool aid. Picking a kicker in the second round is just FLAT DUMB! Barth was 23/28 on FG’s and 26/27 on extra points. Licht just spent a second round pick on someone that MAY give them 1 point per game, and that’s if he doesn’t miss anything.