“We Gotta Have Competition At Every Position”
January 2nd, 2017
Thinning ice
Roberto Aguayo might want to look over his shoulder.
No, Joe’s not thinking about violence related to the angry mobs of Bucs fans incensed by the rookie kicker missing 64 percent of his field goal attempts of 40 or more yards.
Joe’s talking about job security. Heck, kicker Kyle Brindza was fired by Jason Licht for lesser crimes last year.
In his season-closing news conference today, Dirk Koetter addressed the Aguayo situation head on when asked.
Koetter said Aguayo’s kicking stats were unacceptable.
Koetter said he and Licht have talked and media and fans should know the duo is unafraid to move on from a top draft pick like they did this year (see Austin Seferian-Jenkins).
And then Koetter uttered the most important line of his take: “We gotta have competition at every position.”
Last year, the Bucs did not have any competition on the roster for Aguayo at any time. That is quite uncommon in NFL circles. There’s almost always two kickers in training camp.
Joe expects that to change. Aguayo earned it.
January 2nd, 2017 at 5:57 pm
I am in 100% agreement with Koetter on this.
January 2nd, 2017 at 6:06 pm
Good. Keeping things 100 in front of a mic or behind the locker room doors is what I respect about coach Koetter. Time to tighten up Aguayo.
January 2nd, 2017 at 6:07 pm
Aguayo is all smiles after nailing a 33 yard FG.
January 2nd, 2017 at 6:28 pm
Should have happened in preseason. They were afraid he would have a meltdown which he did anyway without competition. So what does that say next year?
January 2nd, 2017 at 6:34 pm
Speaking for Pablo
“Pablo would not like it if Pablo’s manager wanted to put someone on Pablo’s table to compete with Pablo’s table dancing……Pablo’s elongated arc would shrink to the size of 87s. Pablo is embarrassed that El Asesino kicked like El A$$”
January 2nd, 2017 at 7:08 pm
Hey Dirk, does that mean we can have competition at GM too?
Like next time “No Biscuit” Licht tries to throw away multiple assets on a hare-brained idea the backup GM can come in and take over?
January 2nd, 2017 at 7:22 pm
Competition is good. I fully expect kicker to have a good year next year, I expect his offseason will be strong, but if not you need to be ready. Again dolts, I wouldn’t have used that pick to draft him, but I get why they did. I also went through and spent some time looking at FG kickers, like HOFers and guys who have had 15+ year careers, and a lot of them had bad rookie years. If he is who they think he is then kicker should have a good, not great, year next year, that seems to be the trend. By the time you get to year 3 if you’re one of those 15 year guys you should be excellent, again that’s the trend. We shall see.
January 2nd, 2017 at 7:38 pm
Before we all idolize Licht for his hits, his misses have far outweighed his accomplishments. You don’t have to be experienced to pick either Mariota or Winston. His pick of ASJ and Aguayo in the 2d round scream of incompetence, especially when there was such a glaring need for Oline and WR. So now, there there exists such needs and all we have to show for it is a horrible and unreliable kicker. He blew a 4th rounder on Brinzda and a 2d for Aguayo. Don’t forget let Brate go to the Saints before he picked him up again due to ASJ. He needs to improve dramatically.
January 2nd, 2017 at 7:38 pm
Well Rod, when you take a kicker the 3rd highest draft slot in modern NFL history, when most are free agents, you are putting your chips in that he will be a perennial Pro Bowler. Which is sort of insane for a guy coming off a year where he hit 80% of his kicks (lower % than Barth had) while having a game-winning FG blocked and returned for a TD which resulted in a loss in his final collegiate season.
The only thing worse than the logic of it was the evaluation.
January 2nd, 2017 at 7:42 pm
Hey Tom, more than the Bucs had him ranked that highly, also as I said I wouldn’t have taken him ther. Whiny and crying about it does nothing other than bore people to sleep. We get it, you want him to fail so you can say “see”… yeah, that’s real interesting.
January 2nd, 2017 at 7:47 pm
I agree with competition.
But I bet Aguayo wins the job anyway. He’s over the hump.
January 2nd, 2017 at 7:48 pm
Brindza was a trade with the Lions for Tim Wright. No draft picks were given. Interestingly Brindza was given a quick hook and had a much better leg than A-guy-no last year. The only reason the Bucs held onto him was to save Licht’s fat face.
Another Licht classic was botching the offer sheet to sackless George Johnson. The result was giving up their 5th round pick in a reworked trade for Johnson, when the Bears and Jaguars got the benefits of taking starting safety Adrian Amos and friend of Jameis Rashad Greene after that 5th round pick.
I wonder if people still think it’s better to have Dancin’ Charles Sims over pro bowl guard Trai Turner or Gabe Jackson in Rd 3
January 2nd, 2017 at 7:49 pm
It is still a mystery why we moved on from Barth , the most accurate kicker in team history . We are paying the price with Bryndza and Aguayo ….
January 2nd, 2017 at 7:51 pm
Pelbuc Says:
“His pick of ASJ and Aguayo in the 2d round scream of incompetence”
Aguayo turned a corner after the bye week and only got better.
In 11 games he only missed what? 2-3 FGs? That’s a huge improvement over before the bye week.
Yes, bring in competition…but it is way too soon to decide that pick was a bad one.
January 2nd, 2017 at 7:56 pm
I actually anticipate a completely different kicker in Aguayo next year. I think he’s going to be dominant
January 2nd, 2017 at 7:57 pm
Maybe Roberto works out in the long run but, it is not a stretch to say that the Bucs missed the playoffs due to their kicker! Yes, I saw the improvement at the end of the season and I’m optimistic that it will continue next year. However, he cost us the Rams game which would have given us a playoff spot due to 1) giving us the tie breaker against Detroit & 2) we’d have gotten 10 wins.
The pick was the worst in a long time by anyone! Not only was he the worst in the league, he cost us multiple players, namely an NFL caliber receiver and boy could we have used one down the stretch! You guys that try to rationalize the multiple player transaction are delusional and must stop. It doesn’t matter that the Bucs gave up a pick that they initially didn’t have and acquired along the way; once they acquired the extra pick; they AQUIRED AN EXTRA PICK! Who cares that KC used it to draft a player that didn’t last, that doesn’t mean the Bucs would have drafted the same guy!! We gave up 2 players for 1 and that player was burdened by his unusually high draft position and didn’t handle it well. NO got their kicker in the 6th(?) round, out of GA. State, who out performed Rob; you kidding me?!?! It’s a team game, more so than any other but, had Rob been able to make 1 or 2 routine kicks, that most high schoolers can make, the Bucs are IN! So when we all reflect upon what could have been, how can we overlook this gargantuan blunder made by an overall good GM, just because he wanted to buck a tried and true method and prove himself to be “the smartest guy in the room”. There are no guarantees we get close again; look at the struggles of our beloved Lightning.
There, I got it out! Now, go get ‘me Aguayo!
January 2nd, 2017 at 7:57 pm
Rod, no one was as high on A-guy-no as Licht was, and no one was taking him in Rd 2, he was mocked by other NFL guys when it happened and here’s a source:
https://www.joebucsfan.com/2016/05/dumbest-pick-in-the-history-of-the-draft/
The CONSENSUS IN THE LEAGUE was that the pick was the dumbest in the history of the draft. But Rod, please tell me more about your NFL sources which say otherwise.
January 2nd, 2017 at 7:57 pm
Wow, just checked. He missed more than 2-3.
Still too soon to give up on him.
January 2nd, 2017 at 8:01 pm
I disagree that it was the worst pick ever. It was a good pick IF he works out.
I don’t subscribe to the “picked too early” theory.
If a player is the best on your board when you pick, you take him.
January 2nd, 2017 at 8:03 pm
We all knew Aguayo would struggle. Rookie kickers almost always do. Hopefully he gained some valuable experience and can grow. If not, i’m sure the Bucs will have a plan B ready to compete.
BTW, Licht has been pretty solid in the draft. But every time Aguayo missed a field goal, I was not angry at him. I was angry at Licht for drafting a kicker in the second round. You don’t do that, especially in the modern NFL.
January 2nd, 2017 at 8:06 pm
Get ‘EM
January 2nd, 2017 at 8:07 pm
Aguayo is smart enough to know it would be a fake competition because of the team’s investment. All talk and nothing will change as it would have already happened.
January 2nd, 2017 at 8:21 pm
it is not a stretch to say that the Bucs missed the playoffs due to their kicker!
Posted by Stretch Armstrong!
January 2nd, 2017 at 8:22 pm
Brindza’s kicks were no where near the uprights. Thats not the case with RA19. I think he’ll clean it up in the offseason. Im really not as concerned as others. The block was not on him either..
January 2nd, 2017 at 8:31 pm
Tom S. really competition for G.M.? I am guessing the Glazers and 99% of Bucs fans approve of the direction of this franchise. Tired of dumb asses posting nonsense.
January 2nd, 2017 at 8:43 pm
Tom do me a favor and be less of a boring d-bag – had you read anything about last years draft you would have over and over again seen kickers name come up as going anywhere from the middle of the 2nd round to the 3rd round. Do me the world a favor and spend less time being boring online and more time driving into bridge embankments.
God bless.
January 2nd, 2017 at 8:44 pm
Kid is getting his wake up call. Produce next year or take an assistant mngr’s job at..KFC or Taco Bell!! This is the NFL and he’s gotta improve. Hope he makes it.
January 2nd, 2017 at 8:49 pm
LargoBuc – NO, don’t you get it, kicker has to fail, he needs to cost the Bucs games so these morons can go around and tell all their dumb friends about how THEY knew the Bucs shouldn’t have taken him. I mean sure you and I can say yeah, I wouldn’t have taken, but I hope for the best so we didn’t waste a 2nd round pick, but NO NO NO, he needs to FAIL so they can be right and tell all their friends about only they KNEW what was going to happen because the most important thing in the world to them is that THEY can make it all about themselves and how only THEY know what’s really going on.
Very very dull boring people, you can predict every single thing they’ll say days, months and every years before they say it – so to put like 5 mins of research into your opinion, to say hey maybe the sky isn’t falling – they hate that since it’s all about them and by saying that it takes the attention away from them – thus the reason you’ll never be able to get through to their pea sized brain.
Oh and they’re the same bores that the second he does well, they’re the morons that will say I always knew he’d turn it around. Just wait…
January 2nd, 2017 at 9:03 pm
Mike – Kicker signed a 2nd round contract, unless he’s remarkably dumb with his money he probably won’t have to work again if he doesn’t want to. He got just over $2-million in guaranteed money at the very least, not sure how that works with his yearly salary. I mean sure, a million dollars isn’t what it used to be, but you could easily buy a $500k house up in say Wesley Chapel that would be worthy of a multi-millionaire, spend $100k on a car and some toys and then just invest the rest giving yourself some money to live off of. Even with taxes that’s very doable if you invest your money right. Plus just based on his FSU career alone he’d be getting calls to do events, so it’s not like he’d have any new money coming in. Pretty comfortable life he’d be living unless his family has already spent all his money.
January 2nd, 2017 at 9:16 pm
As to that last comment, call me up in dreamland.
January 2nd, 2017 at 9:19 pm
Actually it was the comment before that last comment as it turned out.
January 2nd, 2017 at 9:41 pm
Bye bye baby…. bye bye.
ASAP please.
That’s not me “hoping” he fails, so that I can be right. That’s me expecting the best out of next season and a shanky kicker ain’t gonna get it.
The best. Make Tampa Bay Great Again. Best.
Our community is starving for a team we can love again. You’re close.
I’m FSU thru and thru, but Aguayo should never have been drafted. Not by our team, in any round. Mistakes happen Licht, you move on and fix the problem.
Our community is starving for a team we can love again. You’re close, cause I could actually feel the energy of what little fans were there on Sunday, for the first time in awhile.
January 2nd, 2017 at 10:18 pm
The 4th round pick that Licht traded was to NE along with Tim Wright, for the 2 year rental Logan Mankins. NE drafted DE Trey Flowers-Arkansas with the pick. His stats this season: 45 Tackles, 7 Sacks.
January 2nd, 2017 at 10:21 pm
I love my team and I applaud the work of the GM. No GM has a crystal ball, and in hindsight had Licht known that the most accurate kicker in the history of college football would have struggled, I am sure he would not have drafted him. With that said both the Raiders Janikowski and Patriots Gustowski both struggle in their rookie years. Here’s hoping Aguayo bounces back to his college ways.
January 2nd, 2017 at 10:22 pm
Pressure makes diamonds. Next season its your time to shine Aguayo
January 2nd, 2017 at 10:24 pm
Buc, one of the few that will not blindly follow their school. It wouldn’t matter if Agauyo missed 20, some on here would still defend him and look moronic
January 2nd, 2017 at 10:40 pm
Just an awful idea to not have another kicker in camp this year
January 2nd, 2017 at 10:44 pm
I am not defending Aguayo, I am defending our GM who has helped change the culture of this franchise from perineal losers to winning. I certainly hope the Bucs bring in kicking competition to Aguayo next season and let the best man win.
January 2nd, 2017 at 10:58 pm
Wow Rod really got his panties in a twist. Rod, next time try not to get sand down there. It really makes you cranky.
I can stick to the topic, can you? Or do you feel that since you can’t back up your BS argument you have to go after posters instead.
You’re totally right Rod and ‘Friends of Agauyo’, it was a wonderful pick and very well received by the league and fans when Licht made the heads-up decision to trade a ton of assets for the worst kicker in the NFL who had the same failure Brindza had without the 2nd round pedigree which allowed him to keep his job. Bravo.
January 2nd, 2017 at 11:15 pm
Aguayo is the most accurate kicker in the history of college football, let’s think about that for just a minute. College football started in 1863. How many kickers have graced the field of play since 1863? It’s really mind boggling and not so crazy that our GM would want his services. It is dumbfounding that he struggled as he did, who would have thought? Bring in competition and let’s hope he finds his mojo again.
January 2nd, 2017 at 11:28 pm
Just make sure that the competition is the best available undrafted kicker(s) this time, so as not to waste a pick on one. I really like Aguayo and hope that he can do some work in the off season to improve. Adam Vinatieri extended an invitation to Aguayo to help in any way that he could, and I hope that this offer is still good. Let the best kicker win!
January 2nd, 2017 at 11:34 pm
No, I am 99% sure there were TWO kickers at training camp last year.
January 2nd, 2017 at 11:34 pm
Absolutely, I suspect that Aguayo will work his ass off this offseason to find his rhythm.
January 2nd, 2017 at 11:36 pm
Connor Barth was on the roster, he was cut shortly into camp.
January 2nd, 2017 at 11:38 pm
As inconsistent as Aguayo was, I don’t think he cost us any games.
January 2nd, 2017 at 11:38 pm
The Bucs missed the play-offs because of Aguayo? You could just as easily say the Bucs missed the playoffs because of Doug Martin, JR Sweezy, Robert Ayers injury, Gosner Cherbust, or Vincent Jackson.
January 3rd, 2017 at 12:02 am
Pressure makes diamonds. Next season its your time to shine Aguayo
Call me what you may, but I’m sticking with Aguayo.
I think just like another team let Anger go and we picked him up it could happen to us with Aguayo.
If he come back stronger…some will never want him to miss again…for no reason than he was the 2nd round pick…
Let’s not get it twisted…he will hold his spot…because he has been exposed to the reality of being drafted as a rookie in Tampa Bay!
So he will prepare, compete and succeed inspite of the ones that hope he fails.
Koetter knows Aguayo needs just a little more time, but he also knew he needed to pitch the sharks some live bait, like a nother kicker! SMH…
January 3rd, 2017 at 12:04 am
Look………………All kickers that were selected in the Second round can’t be named Pinero.
January 3rd, 2017 at 12:15 am
The fact that Fans can get so worked up over a Kicker is a good thing in perspective.
January 3rd, 2017 at 1:22 am
Skipper – I agree, I think kicker figures out and has a good second year. As I keep pointing out to these dopes if they’ll take the time to do it, go look at kickers who had long careers and you’ll see, a lot of them (unscientifically I’d say it’s over half of them) had bad first years, then they improved quite a bit in year 2 but were not elite, then in year 3 they were amongst the best kickers in the game. Not saying our kicker will turn out that way, but it’s completely normally they’re not good in year one. If he has a good offseason and comes into next preseason and looks solid then I think *think* we’re all good. If he has a bad offseason and a bad preseason, then I’d be very worried for him.
I don’t know as a kicker if there is a lot to do – his mechanics coming out of college were great, it’s why his accuracy was so good. I don’t know if the Bucs tried to change something, but if they did they should fire the coach that did. Just getting time away from the game, away from the field, it will do him a world of good I think.
We shall see but unlike most of the j/o’s in here I want the kid to do well – but not blindly so. He needs to earn his job and I think he will. He had one chance all year at a game winning FG and he made it. He did not lose us any games. He had a bad year, but it wasn’t like kicker 2015 who actually lost us maybe as many as 3 games.
If he does great then all will be well – except for the people mad that he didn’t fail because they wanted him to fail because they just want to something to complain about because they drive a minivan, their wife is 240lbs and their life sucks so they want everyone to be as miserable as they are.
January 3rd, 2017 at 5:27 am
He’s over the hump LOLOL thats the funniest thing I have read in a while.
Not until he go finds himself a mental coach to get the kid out of his own damn head.
January 3rd, 2017 at 8:12 am
He had a bad year, but it wasn’t like kicker 2015 who actually lost us maybe as many as 3 games.
————————————
@Rod: Amen. That kicker was a TRUE disaster as was Josh McClown. Both of those horrors were courtesy of Lovie Smith. MG8 was already on our roster, but Smith just had to ram McClown down our throats cos of his ego. As much as I hated the HC Musical Chairs, I wasn’t sorry to see Smith gone. I wish Aguayo the best, but there’s nothing wrong with competition. The NFL is a sport; competition is its lifeblood. Sheesh!
January 3rd, 2017 at 9:35 am
Tom S.- competition at GMis a terrific idea!
January 3rd, 2017 at 11:44 am
No-brainer here! We can ill afford to have a 71% field goal kicker if we intend to be a contender. Either Aguayo gets better or we have a new kicker for 2017. It doesn’t get any clearer than that!
January 3rd, 2017 at 7:41 pm
StPete,
The Bucs lost the Rams game by 5. Rob A. missed a 41 yard FG and a PAT! Had he not missed those makeable kicks, our Bucs would have been able to attempt a 28ish yard FG for the win as time expired, instead of needing a TD that was derailed by Jameis’ brain-fart and the non-use of TOs. It shouldn’t have gotten to that point…is my point!
Q: If the Bucs had beaten the Rams would they be in the playoffs now?…It’s not a stretch!
I didn’t even mention the talent we didn’t acquire with the misused picks and how they would have helped a perennial loser; I got too tired of typing about the worst pick in recent history to get to that point.
Regards,
“MR.” Stretch Armstrong