Roberto Aguayo’s Kicking Improving
December 12th, 2016
Rising.
Don’t look now, Bucs fans, but that kicker most wanted to run out of town with the first available U-Haul truck is no longer a joke.
Last night, Roberto Aguayo nailed all three of his field goal attempts, which gave the Bucs a 16-11 win over the Saints to extend the winning streak of the Bucs to five games. That hasn’t happened since the Bucs won a Super Bowl!
In the last eight games, since the bye, Aguayo has been pretty solid. He has made 14-of-17 attempts for an 82 percent rate. Granted, Aguayo got off to a horrid start. Just looking at the current kick percentages for the entire season, an 82 percent clip would place Aguayo right in the middle of a Polish sandwich between Stephen Gostkowski of the Belilcheats and Sebastian Janikowski of the Raiders.
Tell Joe you wouldn’t mind either of those Polish pigskinners on your team?
December 12th, 2016 at 9:10 am
I am guilty of the occasional “Roberto must go” tweet. But I do realize he’ll be here for the season and then will get some competition in camp next summer. I really do hope that he can wake up from this bad dream of a season and become Sebastian Janikowski II.
December 12th, 2016 at 9:11 am
wish the brain surgeon licht would have drafted vonn bell in 2nd round and grabbed aguayo in the 3rd
December 12th, 2016 at 9:14 am
When Aguayo misses it seems like he sidewinds his leg. He doesn’t follow straight through with his kicking leg from south to north through the uprights. Anyone else notice that? He doesn’t have to overkick it, but just work on keeping his head down and stable, and driving his kicking foot through the balls and carry that motion between the uprights.
December 12th, 2016 at 9:14 am
Way to do your job
December 12th, 2016 at 9:15 am
Speaking for Pablo
“Of course Pablo is rooting for Pablo’s amigol to succeed, but El Asesino still makes Pablo uneasy. Pablo will remain uneasy until Roberto has 20 fifty yard game-winning FGs under his belt”
December 12th, 2016 at 9:16 am
Keep working Aguayo. Keep working, we need you.
December 12th, 2016 at 9:18 am
He makes a few routine extra point level FGs and the young Janikowski banter ensues.
This guy sucks so bad and is by far the biggest liability on this football team.
December 12th, 2016 at 9:24 am
How about the fact that he hasn’t made a FG longer than 43 yards? Or that with a chance to go up 8 with a 52 yard field goal, dirk chose to punt. You see improvements, I see chip shots that every kicker should make. Congrats for not missing 35 yard field goals Roberto.
December 12th, 2016 at 9:29 am
Joe, Joe, my God I think your still drinking in celebration. Let’s have a complete season of no misses or very limited misses in games we don’t really need ( not that ALL games are not important ) before we start giving me tenderfoot any props.
December 12th, 2016 at 9:30 am
He has a long way to go before he has my confidence.
Wait til he’s in a game winning situation. I don’t believe he has even
attempted one past 43 yards…
December 12th, 2016 at 9:39 am
Granted that Aguayo is a hero this week. Without him hitting those field goals, the Bucs don’t win the game. Still, (in homage to Coach McKay’s “Capece is kaput” line), I write “Aguayo esta acabado” one week and then I write “Aguayo no esta acabado” the next. This is happening so often that I am surely getting proprioception. I like Aguayo, but I still favor bringing in competition next year in training camp (preferably someone who is undrafted this time so as not to waste another draft pick) and let the best kicker win.
December 12th, 2016 at 9:39 am
Joes: I hate stats…but if we look at this tiny window we see that a player I like is average compared to the league.
December 12th, 2016 at 9:47 am
I’ve been pointing this out for weeks.
Every kicker misses the occasional kick. It happens. Robert has been as good as anyone after the bye.
In fact, if the week after the bye had been his first game, fans would be talking about what a genius pick he was.
I have no doubt, without even reading the above comments first, that there are still haters. Some people make up their minds to hate a player and never stop.
I’m not built like that. A person can earn props (hence my term “PROPS WHEN PROPS ARE EARNED”).
“Props” is my word for “Respect”.
December 12th, 2016 at 9:50 am
His longest FG is 43 yards.
Not impressed.
December 12th, 2016 at 9:53 am
Koetter knows he is still a miss which is why he punts instead of try a NFL caliber kicker’s makeable distance of 52 yards
December 12th, 2016 at 9:57 am
feelthepewterpower Says
“When Aguayo misses it seems like he sidewinds his leg. He doesn’t follow straight through with his kicking leg from south to north through the uprights. Anyone else notice that?”
I look at it a little differently. My viewpoint comes from learning to shoot rifles with my father.
Barring environmental interference (like a gust of wind), I have noticed that he misses when he focuses only on the football.
My father always taught me to aim through a target. I believe Robert zeroes in on the football because, as a rookie, he doesn’t always trust his holder. I’ve even seen him hesitate in the middle of his kicking motion as the holder got the ball down just a little too slowly (with the laces in the right place).
When preparing for the kick, every kicker makes a show of counting his steps backward and to the left. He knows where the ball is supposed to be by instinct. If he trusts the long snapper and the holder, he should barely have to even pay attention to the ball. It’s just a trigger.
When he misses, he completely ignores the target until after he kicks (except in the cases of environmental influences).
I’m not expert…and I’ve never kicked a field goal in my life (though I have kicked a football). But to me, it seems he has been improving as he learns to trust his holder.
Sort of like a QB learns to trust his WRs.
December 12th, 2016 at 9:59 am
Liability. When we need a FG kicker we will turn to this head case and after he misses we will finally have to acknowledge that we should not have coddled this human point shaver and the fevered ego GM that can’t admit his mistakes making the rest of the team and fans pay for it.
December 12th, 2016 at 10:02 am
He’s a rookie so I’ll give him his pass on some of those horrible misses earlier this year. He made me mad too but now he’s improving and I like that. But to call him a liability when he has CLEARLY won games for us at this point is asinine. We have other issues and he’s at the bottom end on that spectrum.
December 12th, 2016 at 10:13 am
Whistling past the graveyard is asinine.
Making routine extra point level kicks and punting instead of attempting 42+ yard kicks is nothing to celebrate. This guy cannot be relied on to make actual NFL caliber and game-winning kicks.
Liability.
December 12th, 2016 at 10:29 am
Let me know when he can kick a 45 yarder.
December 12th, 2016 at 10:33 am
He has helped us stay on this game win streak….but go ahead Dallas and write him off as a liability…..your eyes are lying to your brain and you are irrelevant.
December 12th, 2016 at 10:34 am
I also want to see him go past 50…..step it up Roberto!
December 12th, 2016 at 10:34 am
You mean like the game winner he hit on Monday Night vs the Panthers?
December 12th, 2016 at 10:35 am
DallasBuc spot on with that, think the bucs have turned the corner and checked off most of the boxes that they used to swing and miss on the past decade, like allowing drew brees to go 95 yards for the win, now its a prime time game…but im with you om aguayo, and koetter needs to let him kick the 45 plus FGs to see what the team has
December 12th, 2016 at 10:48 am
Koetter is keeping it easy for Aguayo. Calling his name only when it is a relatively short kick. I dont expect Aguayo to hear his name for a 50+Yard attempt. Not when field position is so critical to our success.
He’s gotten better for sure, but certainly not where he needs to be.
December 12th, 2016 at 10:56 am
Now your slobbering on Aquayo’s knob.. Last week it was cut him. Nothing wrong with being patient and letting him gain confidence. He hasn’t lost us any games but he has won at least 2.
Nobody is slobbering … and Joe didn’t write to cut him. Why dabble in fake news? You could easily make a case Aguayo cost the Bucs the game against the Rams. Guy is riding a roller coaster. Joe won’t ignore the ups and downs.–Joe
December 12th, 2016 at 10:58 am
Why would you attempt a long FG with a streaky rookie kicker when you have a fantastic punter and a fantastic defense? Some of you claim to be football savy but spew out stupidity that clearly is nothing more than an attempt to bash a kicker you dont like.
Bonzai this is one time we can agree. Expecting a rookie kicker to make all his kicks when Vet Kickers dont even make all their kicks is ridiculous.
December 12th, 2016 at 11:31 am
Don’t you guys remember the hard field conditions at the end of the game yesterday? No coach is going to run out any kicker for a 52-yard field goal in the downpour or a post downpour Super Soggy field. Haters gonna hate.
Believe in Jameis! Believe in Aguayo!
December 12th, 2016 at 11:37 am
So let me get this straight, last week you guys were saying this guy was EMBARRASSING…now this week its everything is fine….
Rookie kickers will have up and down seasons, i dont care which kicker it is…very few come out and kick lights out…..so stop with these RA stories.It’s so silly to hear the overreactions
December 12th, 2016 at 11:55 am
You are so back and forth with this guy on a weekly basis. lol
December 12th, 2016 at 12:27 pm
Like it or not, the Bucs are going to stick with Aguayo the rest of the season. That doesn’t mean that you don’t bring in competition in the offseason for him to earn his job next year.
December 12th, 2016 at 12:36 pm
R.O. he’s a major reason we lost the Rams game.
December 12th, 2016 at 1:14 pm
“Making routine extra point level kicks and punting instead of attempting 42+ yard kicks is nothing to celebrate”
He made kicks of 41 and 39 yards in the game and both would were kicked well enough to have been good from 45+. I’m not sure we’ve punted once the entire year when in position to kick anything under 50.
At least use reality in your arguments. It’s a 50+ yard FG from the opponents 35. You’re suggesting we’re punting from the opponent’s 27 yard line.
I don’t know if anyone has noticed but that’s my #1 pet peeve here: making up sh1t or exaggerating things to ridiculous degrees to support your negative agenda.
You’d think that would calm down when we’re 8-5 and on the best win streak in 14 years…
December 12th, 2016 at 2:03 pm
@Lord C- Yea, people are so bent about the additional picks to get him and simply won’t let it go. They WANT to be proven correct, that he WILL fail so that their words are vindicated. I don’t know about you but I’m a Bucs fan. I root for all of my players to succeed. That’s how it should be. The picks are gone, get over it!
I’m not enamored either but I’m hopeful that he’ll turn it around. Truly, what choice do we have?!
December 12th, 2016 at 2:44 pm
I am still shell shocked. I need 8 Tums and a shot of tequila before every kick just to keep me from blowing chunks and passing out in complete utter terror.
December 12th, 2016 at 3:15 pm
I’ll believe when he’s 100% under 40 and hits some 50 yarders consistently. Until then, he’s just a guy.
December 12th, 2016 at 3:19 pm
While he is improving I think the fact we didn’t attempt the long field go to go up by 8 in the last minutes of the Saints game shows that he is more of a liability. In the playoffs that same punt strategy might night work as well. Also what is his long? Pretty sure it is under 45 yards.
December 12th, 2016 at 4:05 pm
My god Joe, stop with the Roberto stories. It brings out all the goof balls. My guess is the majority of the hate posters are very young. No adult with any life experience would be so judgemental of a young man’s growing pains. Knowing full well each and everyone of them has made their share of mistakes as they gained more responsibility moving forward in life. Yet, if they are indeed adults, my condolences to all related to them.
December 12th, 2016 at 4:10 pm
Its a process. Aguayo’s got talent or he wouldn’t have been rated so high by so many coming out of College..
Look no farther than our Punter Anger as an example of what not to do. He came out highly rated and was drafted in the 3rd round by Jax. Took heat from the fans for having mediocre net averages (even though his punt average was always 46-47 yards each year – so that was obviously somewhat on Jax’ coverage teams) and being “the punter taken before Russell Wilson” who could never live up to his draft position expectations. So Jax let him walk after 4 years because Anger didn’t want to be there anymore and they didn’t really want him either unless he was cheap.
So the Bucs sign Anger to a decent 1 year prove it deal ($1.75M) and now look at him. Performing at a Pro Bowl level and one of the most consistent producers on our team.
Point being – don’t give up too soon on a talented and highly rated specialist if he has some struggles early in his NFL career. Unless the wheels fall totally off – stay patient and trust that your eval of his talents will show up – and you will likely be rewarded.
December 12th, 2016 at 4:22 pm
@bucsfanman
I don’t have a problem with critiques when they are constructive and fact based.
But we all know that’s not where most these as4holes are coming from.
We’re on the best win streak since 2002. Why of all times would you be bashing our GM right now and bringing up what he used the 3rd & 4th round picks for.
A lot of the top teams right now have bad picks from this same 2016 draft in the mid rounds. You think their fans are calling their GMs names and nitpicking specific mid round draft picks? It’s a Bucs life indeed
December 12th, 2016 at 7:04 pm
yep people forget he’s only a rookie… and a young one at that… just needs a little experience under his belt and time to adjust to the different kicking angles of the NFL
December 12th, 2016 at 9:37 pm
Only reason we got aguayo where we did is bc other teams were going to get him potentially. There is no 3rd round scenario for this. I would’ve loved to trade up to get maybe vonn bell or maybe even another safety but getting aguayo in the 3rd wasn’t happening