Pressure!
June 24th, 2016
All eyes on rookie kicker.
The haters will be out in force.
If Bucs rookie kicker Roberto Aguayo thinks he kicked under pressure at Florida State, then he’s got a new thing coming, says heavy metal headbanging Jason La Canfora of CBS Sports.
In a column offering a suggestion for each NFL team during the annual NFL early-summer slumber, La Canfora advises the Bucs to have Aguayo ingest every (legal) health aid available, and for heaven sake, don’t guzzle any of Kwon Alexander’s energy drinks.
Get that kicker you drafted in the second round on any legal supplements you can get your hands on. Homeboy better bulk up. Hitting inside 49 yards is great and all, but that ain’t how you make your coin up here, and getting picked that high pretty much puts a target on every kick he attempts.
In short, La Canfora believes every missed kick by Aguayo will have the haters dancing in glee. Additionally, every missed kick will bring scorn from fellow kickers as their agents know if Aguayo succeeds, that means only more cash in their clients’ wallets, as well as future clients.
If Aguayo succeeds, that raises the bar for the value of all kickers.
June 24th, 2016 at 12:11 pm
Am I the only one who doesn’t hate the pick? I really don’t care (in the summer) who the Bucs picked as long as they work out (I’ve hated POSITION picks, like Safety at 7 overall). I thought the Marpet pick was ballsy. And you can make ballsy pocks. You just can’t MISS on ballsy picks.
June 24th, 2016 at 12:27 pm
LOL @ Jason La Joke of a media member. Tired of the arm chair kickers trying to say this and that like they are experts. Dude has no clue just like all the other jokers in the media.
I watched Aguayo the last 3 years. Dude is unflappable even after a miss. Kickers miss kicks. It will happen. It’s normal. Being picked in 2nd round isn’t going to add any pressure that he doesn’t already put on himself as a perfectionist. The dude is the best kicker in NCAA history for a reason, his extremely high work ethic. Nobody will work harder to perfect his craft, well, nobody other than Winston. LOL
He doesn’t need to be 100% accurate and that’s impossible, so those fans who will freak out over a miss are not realistic fans. Not a hard concept to understand, so not sure why La Joke thinks every miss will freak people out.
June 24th, 2016 at 12:29 pm
I don’t always make ballsy picks. But when I do, I prefer to pick my ballsies. Stay ballsy my friends.
June 24th, 2016 at 12:31 pm
I have to admit I didn’t really care for the pick, still stuck there.
June 24th, 2016 at 12:33 pm
You know every hater and his brother are gonna be on R.A. and Licht the first kick he misses, any subsequent misses too. THAT is when we’re really gonna see how good he is. Does he have that built in forgetter, that every kicker needs? That’s the biggest question right now.
BTW Joe, thanks for the video! One of my all time favorite songs, and video is pure Killer.
June 24th, 2016 at 1:00 pm
I’m willing to give up a second round pick to not have to go through what we did far too often last year with our kicking game. I’m still having nightmares about that Texans game.
June 24th, 2016 at 1:13 pm
There was a great story about Adam Vinetari and Bill Parcells his Rookie year. People should read it before spouting off like La Canfora and especially fans.
June 24th, 2016 at 2:34 pm
Aguayo will not be perfect – but he will be good from day 1 and will only get better with time, experience and hard work. I have no problem with spending a 3rd and freebie 4th round pick to draft the best kicker in NCAA history who also just happens to have a close relationship (and some similar mental qualities) with our franchise QB.
June 24th, 2016 at 2:45 pm
You are not alone. I like the pick too.
June 24th, 2016 at 2:48 pm
Speaking for Pablo
“Pablo wonders……did Aguayo write his name on the card and hand it in or was it Hason who made the trade up and picked “El Asesino” in the 2nd round…..the pressure should be on Hason. Pablo thinks his homeboy will handle the pressure just fine. Pablo also thinks there might be some racists in media rooting for Roberto to fail.”
June 24th, 2016 at 3:02 pm
I saw this take somewhere (I think it was on JBF) and it made a ton of sense to me
Basically, there is NO pressure on Aguayo because of his draft position. The job is his for a few years no matter what. He’s gonig to be our kicker and he’s not going to be cut, therefore….no pressure at all
June 24th, 2016 at 5:03 pm
CreamsicleBananaHammock Says
“Basically, there is NO pressure on Aguayo because of his draft position. The job is his for a few years no matter what.”
If he makes 2 of every 5 kicks, he’ll be pulled in a heartbeat.
Personally, he was on my wishlist and I am glad we got him. I don’t subscribe to the whole “reaching” theory. If you are 100% sold on a player, you take him. Period. It doesn’t matter where. Why risk losing him?
I mean, people can “guess” at when he is most likely to go…but that doesn’t mean they will be right. For all anyone knows, a team might have taken him later in the same round.
I think he’ll do fine over all. I am a little concerned that he will start off a little rough…maybe take 3-4 games to get in the swing of things. Fans in Tampa would likely turn on him if he missed all his kicks in his first game (say, if he missed 3 field goals). Tampa fans are whiners and quitters.
The kid might…MIGHT…start slow, but I think he’ll adjust fairly quick.
June 24th, 2016 at 5:09 pm
Hawaiian Buc Says
“I’m still having nightmares about that Texans game.”
I’m not. Not about the Titans game either.
Those losses were very predictable.
With the Titans, it was Jameis first game after the Rose Bowl, where Mariota stomped him. Mariota was in his head, plain and simple.
Knew the Saints were beatable.
But the Texans had a good defense. We just were not ready yet.
This year will be much different.
June 24th, 2016 at 5:09 pm
Joe you should have linked Taylor Swift’s “Shake It Off”….haters gonna hate…that’s just the way it is.
As for pressure. Nah…not worse than FSU at all…pretty much the same…the very WORST pressure you feel is peer pressure. Yeah fans and pundits will be watching but the greatest pressure will come from his teammates. Aguayo will not want to let them down. That’s EXACTLY the same pressure he faced at FSU…not letting teammates down…and he held up in a National Title Run.
Pressure is what is happening on the battlefields in Afghanistan and Iraq. Those guys are under pressure. All the pressure we’re talking about here is purely mental. Aguayo’s first contract as a 2nd rounder has insured his financial future even if he is a bust. It’s all mental…and it’s all peer related….fans a little bit…but it’s exactly what he faced in Tallahassee.
June 24th, 2016 at 5:44 pm
creamsicle, that’s an interesting take. i certainly think he would get a chance to work through the type of start that Kyle Brindza had, even as brutal and costly as that was last year. If his FG % looks more like a completion % in late November, it’s still hard for me to see them cutting the kid, but it wouldn’t shock me if he landed on IR with some mysterious injury if the bucs are playing meaningful games. If they aren’t in the playoff hunt and he’s struggling…..shank away, Roberto, it only helps our draft position after yet another lost season and he just might kick his way though whatever is going on with him.
hopefully this is all moot and the guy is an elite kicker from day 1
June 24th, 2016 at 6:40 pm
Bonzai, you’re completely correct about what will happen if he’s connecting at a 40% clip…I’m just not really worried about him at all. If you can kick you can kick and this kid can kick. Im certain he’s our kicker for the next 15 years
June 24th, 2016 at 8:36 pm
This was an awful pick. I agree with the national media consensus on that. But I don’t see how any buc fan can be rooting on him to miss like this guy thinks. Buc fans wanna win.
June 24th, 2016 at 10:48 pm
With the Titans, it was Jameis first game after the Rose Bowl, where Mariota stomped him. Mariota was in his head, plain and simple.
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Why would he be in Mariota’s head? First off…they don’t play one another on the field. Secondly, it’s not like Mariota flat outplayed Jameis that game.
June 24th, 2016 at 11:08 pm
When we are down 1 with 1.2 seconds to play – he better be pretty close to perfect.
June 25th, 2016 at 7:32 am
@feelthepewterpower
Mariota was in Winston’s head, you mean.
Did you see the Rose Bowl game I’m talking about? Winston totally lost control in that game. He yelled and screamed at his teammates, blaming them for EVERY mistake. He was spazzing. Highly emotional. At one point, his coach even threatened to pull him from the game because of his behavior.
It was a stomping, and the press jumped on it.
Winston did not play directly against Mariota in that Rose Bowl either, but you know what? The Media made it seem like he did. And that, my friend, is why things got stuck in Winston’s head.
“Will Mariota force Jameis to lose control again?” news sources were asking. You think Winston didn’t hear/see that?
The good news is that I don’t believe such a thing will happen again. I think Winston has now had time to mature enough to maintain control. That game against the Titans was just too soon for him.
Had we played the Titans in game 8 instead of game 1, we probably would have seen a much different result.
June 25th, 2016 at 7:34 am
Keep in mind that Rose Bowl was Winston’s ONLY loss at the time. Something like that stays with you.
June 25th, 2016 at 7:39 am
I agree Seminole2374 .
Anyone who watched him (for me, EVERY game, I’m FSU alum) his whole college career, is not even sweating the haters. This guy is worth the commitment and anybody who plays for FSU is used to high pressure already. Yes he’s missed one here and there, they all do, it’s THE KICKOFFS NAILED AT THE 3 YARD LINE time and time again that will show his true worth. Make a team drive 90 yards instead of 60.
June 25th, 2016 at 9:13 am
Ppl forget that the most underated position in he league is kicker. These are the guys who decide the slim margin of either defeat or winning. We rely on the guys a whole lot, and are a big reason why we either win or lose but they still get no credit.
One of the biggest needs on this team like it or not, was kicker. Just go back and watch the Texans or colts game if u don’t believe me. And it just so happen that the most accurate kicker in ncaa HISTORY was available in the draft. Ppl can complain about using such a high pick to get him but he prob. Would of been gone had we waited until the 3rd. Licht has insight we don’t during the draft. But when your projected to have one of the most reliable kickers in the game for the next 15-20 yrs, and don’t have to keep bringing in guys like brinza year in and year out, that’s a GREAT pick imo.