Still Irked
April 27th, 2018
Recalls nightmare.
Perhaps it is because he is still has the Bucs close to his heart? Perhaps it is because this involves a kicker? But former Bucs quarterback Chris Simms is still outraged.
Tonight at 7 p.m., the draft resumes with the second round. And it is a bit of Bucs second round history that may never go away. It was two years ago when Bucs AC/DC-loving general manager Jason Licht pulled off a draft that still has Bucs fans muttering under their breath.
It was when Licht drafted Florida State kicker Roberto Aguayo. It turned out to be a colossal dud of a pick. Aguayo never even made it out of preseason in what would have been his second year with the Bucs.
In a recent episode of “Pro Football Talk Live,” seen by intelligent football fans weekday mornings on NBC Sports Network, Simms, who occasionally co-hosts the show with the creator, curator and overall guru of Pro Football Talk, the great Mike Florio, listed the Aguayo pick among his three-worst draft picks of all time.
Simms didn’t hold back, suggesting a common criminal on the roster wouldn’t have been cut quicker than Aguayo.
“You want to know one of the biggest swings and misses?” Simms asked Florio. “I am going to take one from recent history that I am still scratching my head about. Roberto Aguayo in the second round.
“That pick was so bad, first of all, he’s not on their team any more. He was just drafted in the second round three years ago which you and I all know that teams don’t give up — you can’t even get cut by a team if you are drafted in the second round unless you truly have done something lawfully wrong.
“I have that a grade at the time — I couldn’t even give it an ‘F’ it was so bad. I gave it a ‘K.’ That’s how bad it was when [Aguayo] was originally drafted. Forget all the players that were drafted [later]. A plethora of star players. That was one of the worst picks I have ever seen.”
Well, Joe doesn’t know about star players. Joe did a quick scan of the immediate picks after Aguayo was selected and no names jumped out other than a pair of stiff quarterbacks, with the exception of one lone player and it hurts.
Joe knew prior to the draft the Bucs had a defensive end on their radar from Maryland. Joe’s source was confident the guy was a sleeper and had the tools to do something in the NFL.
His name? Yannick Ngakoue.
But because the Bucs had traded back into the second round to grab Aguayo, they didn’t have the ammo to trade up in the third round to secure Ngakoue. The Bucs had also drafted defensive end Noah Spence in the previous round.
Last year, Ngakoue’s second season in the NFL, he registered 12 sacks for the Jags and went to the Pro Bowl, after eight sacks as a rookie. So, yeah, that’s what makes the Aguayo draft sting for Joe. Instead of a rotten kicker, the Bucs missed out on a double-digit sack guy.
Joe remembers Bucs AC/DC-loving general manager Jason Licht said the Bucs needed to score points and Aguayo was the best kicker he ever scouted. Joe understood the logic then and understands it now. In theory, it made sense but in reality it just didn’t happen.
Provided the haul Licht stole from Buffalo last night works out, that should put to rest the continued hand-wringing of selecting Aguayo.
The best way to make Bucs fans forget about Aguayo? Wins some freaking games.
April 27th, 2018 at 12:05 pm
That pick wasn’t near as bad as Joe would have had……”a punter rather than a CB”….”yes, Joe wrote that”.
Lucky we traded down because Brian Anger is pretty good.
Now, we can pick up an undeveloped CB in round 2…..(hopefully, instead of a kicker)
April 27th, 2018 at 12:09 pm
i still think the noah spence pick can come good…rotating with JPP, curry, and gholston they can put him in better positions to succeed and be a freaky situational 4-3 and or a rush LB in 3-4
as far as aguayo, it probably also sticks in Simms’ mind because Aguayo played wearing his old number, which eventually led Simms to declare “I’m no longer the worst Buccaneer to wear the number 2 jersey”
April 27th, 2018 at 12:10 pm
Alright, forget that “aha no” waste….swing and a miss, it happens.
My dream for this evening:
Big Will
Guice, Chubb, or Jones II
Jessie Bates (proably gone) or Shaquim Griffin
4th Nick Nelson
5th Desmond Harrison
our lower rounders may be used in trades
April 27th, 2018 at 12:11 pm
Imagine if they had drafted Johnny Football like Joe wanted, lol.
April 27th, 2018 at 12:12 pm
@pick6
I agree. People are giving up on Spence already. While I understand it, I would think they’d learned better after McCoy’s first two years of injuries.
Spence has the heart…he just needs the health.
April 27th, 2018 at 12:13 pm
Don’t even try defending that pick Joe it’s not worth it, it sucked and was extremely stupid enough said
April 27th, 2018 at 12:13 pm
Chris SIMM is turning into a wannabe shock jock.
April 27th, 2018 at 12:14 pm
@Joe … “Provided the haul Licht stole from Buffalo last night works out, that should put to rest the continued hand-wringing of selecting Aguayo.” What’s humorous Joe is that reading the Buffalo sites, their fans are ecstatic with the QB they ‘stole’ (Josh Allen) by trading with the Bucs. I think their fans view those picks they traded away as being ‘freebies’ based on Bills previous trade. And they still have a bunch of picks.
Wish you hadn’t brought up the Yannick Ngakoue thing. But you’re right, winning makes everyone forget bad decisions.
April 27th, 2018 at 12:15 pm
It was a pretty bad pick even at the time but if he was a great kicker now, would Simms be even bringing this up? It is hilarious how these analysts look back on picks and claim they knew all along.
And is Aguayo even as bad as the Dexter Jackson 2nd round pick? I mean granted he couldn’t kick it accurately but Jackson was a football player afraid of getting tackled.
April 27th, 2018 at 12:22 pm
@pick6,
Aguayo wore Simms’ old number? Aguayo wore 19.
April 27th, 2018 at 12:22 pm
It “turned out to be a terrible pick”. Had Aguayo hit +90% of his FG, won the four games we lost his rookie season due to missed kicks, and made the playoffs we would calling Aguayo a brilliant, out-of-the-box decision. Hindsight is 20-20.
The worst pick isn’t a single bad selection because they happen. The worst pick is a series of bad selections that prevent a team from building. I like what Licht is building.
April 27th, 2018 at 12:25 pm
Move on, Chrissy.
April 27th, 2018 at 12:31 pm
@Joseph Mamma-
I hear you. it doesn’t have the shock value of trading up for KICKER, but at least Aguayo had some production you could look at and build a shaky rationale around. Dexter Jackson was a D-II player made one play in one big upset and then ran fast on a track, that was his entire college resume. There was no extra draft capital expended but it was still a near-total abandonment of logic to grab him where they did
April 27th, 2018 at 12:32 pm
@lambchop…you are right, i totally misremembered that. i am trying to remember who inspired that comment by Simms as it was funny. almost certainly was one of our recent parade of failed kickers.
April 27th, 2018 at 12:33 pm
I like Licht, but he really should have been fired for that pick alone.
April 27th, 2018 at 12:35 pm
damn….he had 8sack as a rookie!!!!!!!
#NOEXCUSESIN2018!!!!!!….GO BUCS!!!!!
April 27th, 2018 at 12:45 pm
Sup fellas, I’m on the fence about vea. I hope he does well, obviously, but can anyone tell me how vea compares to star loutalai. The monster dt from Utah that was drafted by the panthers a few years back. Star was also drafted in the top half of the first round. He’s on his second team. Similar players no?
April 27th, 2018 at 12:47 pm
@pick6,
Nick Folk probably.
April 27th, 2018 at 12:51 pm
If this guy didn’t have a famous last name would anyone be reporting what he thinks?
April 27th, 2018 at 12:56 pm
Every team in this NFL has had hits and misses. Every single one. Nobody knew Roberto was going to get NFl stage frights. The guy was a monster at FSU. But he just could not handle the NFL pressure. DONE! Licht really stepped up yesterday. We get 3 quality players in the 2nd rd today guys. And we got a D lineman who hits hard and gets after it. A lot of teams are envious of us right now. I just hope they are smart picks. Something tells me they will be.
April 27th, 2018 at 1:05 pm
I’m still so so glad that Joe doesn’t run the Bucs team. I can’t even count how many times he begged for Tampa to take Johnny. People love to buy hype. I know he wasn’t the only one screaming for Johnny though.
April 27th, 2018 at 1:20 pm
That’s interesting, because I am still outraged at Chris Simms lousy plays and all of the interceptions he threw.
April 27th, 2018 at 1:30 pm
We all know that was a horrible decision so why even bring it up, it happened, its over and we’re past it now Simms.
Chris Simms is wasting valuable oxygen everytime he opens his mouth.
April 27th, 2018 at 1:31 pm
Yeah hindsight is always 20/20. Just because the pick didn’t work out doesn’t mean it was the wrong call. Don’t any of you play poker? The problem was Aguayo could not handle the mental pressure and scrutiny of his draft position. He folded like a house of cards.
April 27th, 2018 at 1:53 pm
Still funny to hear Jason say Roberto was the best kicker he ever scouted. I guess he never really scouted a kicker. The kid was perfect from the college extra point line which unfortunately for him was moved back in the pro. It would have been one thing if he had a Seabass type leg where he is hitting 70 yarders in practice but the kids leg was OK and he kicked 50% from 40 yards plus. Every Nole had such high praise. So dumb to pay a high price for something you can get for free.
April 27th, 2018 at 2:00 pm
Aguayo was an obvious mis-evaluation.
It happens.
2016 was a REALLY bad draft aside from the 1st few players selected and a handful sprinkled throughout the next 100 picks. So if the GM was going to “screw up” in any of his 4 previous drafts – that was the one to do it in.
Licht picked 4 starters with his first 4 picks in each of the drafts surrounding that bad year (2015 and 2017) – so he kinda more than made up for that bad 2016 draft with 2 stellar ones surrounding it.
We’re off to a good start in 2018 – fleecing the Bills for TWO mid 2nd rd picks just to move down 5 spots – and still managed to get our intended target. Vea would have obviously been the pick at #7 if we had been forced to pick there.
So hats off to ya Jason Licht.
Chris Simms will be butthurt about his time in Tampa until the day he dies – and it always shows in his commentary…
April 27th, 2018 at 2:02 pm
Can some of these guys never give it up? Yes, Aguayo didn’t work out. Mistakes happen. If anyone is perfect in their decisions just jump right in and say so. Give it a rest!! New year. New draft. Get a life!
April 27th, 2018 at 2:10 pm
That’s a loser mentality basically any fan still holding on to the memory of that pick as if to point to a reason why the team sucked.
This will be the real test because there are 4 people with zero excuses:
Dirk Koetter
Mike Smith
Winston
McCoy
McCoy and Smith got their help
Dirk and koetter will get a running back
No excuses no explanations for not being competitive this year, I will stop short of saying they have to make the playoffs but say they should. At the very least they should be competitive no matter who they are facing
April 27th, 2018 at 2:19 pm
Horrible pick and loss of an actual player that may be contributing but things like that get you the record the bucs have had the past 15 years and why we are currently clevelenad south and until the bucs win a playoff game we are still clevelend south, i think the bucs and the browns are like the old cold war countries in a race to see who will be on top first and right now it is a stale mate
April 27th, 2018 at 2:24 pm
The puzzling thing to me is that Aguayo went from a 95.5 % to 80.8 % by his third year in college. If Licht makes good use of his three 2 nd round picks, it
may help to forget the the kicker fiasco.
April 27th, 2018 at 2:36 pm
He is irked because a kicker was drafted higher than he was.
April 27th, 2018 at 2:45 pm
Simms is completely right. When Licht is fired at the end of the 2018 regular season Aguayo will only be one of the many poor choices he made, but it will undoubtedly be one of the worst.
Aguayo literally had a worse FG% his final year at FSU (80%) than Conner Barth did for the Bucs (85%), in addition to costing FSU the GTech game by getting his noodle legged kick blocked and returned for a TD when a miss would have merely sent the game to OT. The pick was one of the worst in history not just because it was a kicker in the 2nd round, but a bad kicker at that.
April 27th, 2018 at 3:10 pm
Three worst picks of all time? That’s pure hyperbole. Obviously it’s a bust, but it’s a bust at the end of the 2nd round – and he played a year and unlike the kickers from last year he didn’t lose the Bucs any games. There’s a long list of guys who were worse picks than Roberto, and that’s just in team history.
April 27th, 2018 at 3:14 pm
“Tom S. Says:
April 27th, 2018 at 2:45 pm
Simms is completely right. When Licht is fired at the end of the 2018 regular season Aguayo will only be one of the many poor choices he made, but it will undoubtedly be one of the worst.”
Ah the good old, I KNOW WHATS GOING TO HAPPEN thought. Here is a bucs than that already wants us to tank in April.
April 27th, 2018 at 3:15 pm
I remember all the FSU fans were like yoohoo when Licht made that fateful mistake, It seems you could draft Florida’s or FSU’s waterboy and everyone goes goo goo ga ga over it until they bust, then of course they act like they weren’t for it. Same thing goes with this Derwin James. The crybabies went apesh|t when Licht passed on him for Vita-Man V. I don’t know how many homers were praising Licht for that pick but there were a lot.
April 27th, 2018 at 3:27 pm
There’s no doubt in my mind that that move was conjured up at a local winghose
April 27th, 2018 at 3:31 pm
Really was terrible. I said that right away. I knew VH3 would flop. But even if Aguayo was ok at kicking, it would still feel like a terrible decision
April 27th, 2018 at 4:21 pm
Did we draft Maui?