“Iron Jet”
May 18th, 2017
Jets’ loss. Bucs’ gain.
The more Joe studies what new kicker Nick Folk brings to Tampa Bay’s table, the more Joe is certain Roberto Aguayo will be calling Journey RV Rental for an extended September vacation.
First, Folk is mentally tough to the core, all the way down to his home life.
His wife Julianne is a fitness freak and online inspiration to legions of at-home moms. In November, she artfully skewered New York Daily News beat writer Manish Mehta via Twitter after he trashed the job of kicking and blasted the men who do it for a living.
What Mrs. Folk accomplished was no easy task. Read installment one of that here. The blast earned her a lot of fans.
Mrs. Folk noted her husband twice won the annual “Iron Jet” award given to the hardest worker on the team — voted by the players. Joe’s read elsewhere that it’s largely a training-based honor.
Think about that. Imagine the mental makeup of a kicker garnering that kind of respect. And then consider Folk was the most accurate field goal kicker in Jets history, a guy who drilled at an 87 percent clip last year.
Meet your new Bucs kicker and family via the video below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S4Vra7PXCdU
May 18th, 2017 at 5:28 am
Aguayo will be put on the practice squad or make the roster but made inactive each week.
May 18th, 2017 at 5:41 am
Iron Jet?
Is that similar to a lead zeppelin?
May 18th, 2017 at 6:34 am
May the best kicker wins! We shouldn’t have to worry about our kicker.
In Licht We Trust!!!
May 18th, 2017 at 6:50 am
I think Aguayo will the kicker for the Bucs.
May 18th, 2017 at 7:02 am
Whoever is the better kicker will kick for the BUCS. We had to many close games due to kicking woes the past couple years. 2nd round pick or not.
May 18th, 2017 at 7:09 am
LOL Doosh 🙂
May 18th, 2017 at 7:17 am
DAMN even this video has me hyped for any BUCS coverage…
@joe … any videos on Alberto? Be fair lol
#seizethemoment
12-4
May 18th, 2017 at 7:17 am
Competition will and should dictate who the starter will be. Aguayo better have been practicing.
May 18th, 2017 at 7:21 am
@joe … any videos on Aguayo? Be fair lol
May 18th, 2017 at 7:22 am
If the Bucs had a 87% kicker they would’ve been in the playoffs
Just for comparison the best college kicker this year went in the 7th round…
The NFL laughed at Licht last year
May 18th, 2017 at 7:31 am
It looks like Folk is fighting for a roster spot to feed his growing family. That should make Aguayo very nervous. May the best kicker win!
May 18th, 2017 at 7:34 am
People saying that we will keep two kickers, and I’ve seen several, need to sit down and fill out the slots. 53 of them. I remember starting to do this back when Culpepper got released, a move that was really controversial at the time, and when you do that you realize just how precious a roster spot is. (I couldn’t figure out how to keep Culpepper on the roster and I wanted him there btw) This isn’t an easy excercise, especially if you start counting on 7th round picks and multiple UDFA to make the team.
With kickers I ask why? Do you want to extend the competition into the season? Make a decision, stick with the consequences.
May 18th, 2017 at 7:39 am
I was hopeful Aguayo was another Latin kicker from a soccer tradition who had great length and give us the chance to perhaps steal a game here or there with a 50+ kick….a “generational” kicker. Last year he wasn’;t even an adequate much less generational kicker. He can improve his % but my biggest disappointment was in his leg strength which did not really impress me.
Folk will make sure our % returns to where it should be whether it’s him or Roberto beats him out….but no real bombs from beyond the 50 I guess.
May 18th, 2017 at 7:48 am
Maybe so Tampa Tonya but they all stop when he snagged O.J. this year.
May 18th, 2017 at 7:53 am
LOL!!! Looks like Joe has found his horse in this race!!!!! Prepare yourselves for a barrage of “folk is the guy” !!!!!!!! But nick folk has had 4 bad years in his 10 years played. So what folk will show up at training camp???? If he misses will the Buc Fans yell ” What The Folk”!!!!!!!!!!!
may the best kicker win!!!!!!!
May 18th, 2017 at 7:55 am
Nole-
Weren’t you laughing in agony when the player you nearly guaranteed they were gonna take got passed over like a slutty sorority girl with herpes?
Howard is a great pick but Roberto will always be a stain on Licht’s record
May 18th, 2017 at 8:06 am
Tampa Tony right on, aguayo among many others including ghost johnson
May 18th, 2017 at 8:07 am
The fans win no matter what happens.
May 18th, 2017 at 8:31 am
In a league where good Kickers are now more valued than most RB’s, I find it difficult to get behind a guy who was dropped by a bad team whom he holds franchise records for and who has yet to replace him.
This may be Tampa’s shot at redemption for letting Matt Bryant walk for “No Good Reason” or he can be what we thought Bryant was all those years ago, a dead legged kicker.
It’s Bertie’s job to lose …
May 18th, 2017 at 8:57 am
I don’t see Folk beating out Roberto. I mean Roberto never missed an extra point in college.
May 18th, 2017 at 9:43 am
@JTHV – the Jets let Folk walk because they are in serious tank-mode next season. 2018 looks to be a good QB draft and they want their pick.
May 18th, 2017 at 9:52 am
@Mike n-
You know the college extra points are like 20 yarders
May 18th, 2017 at 9:55 am
Thank you Joe.
I’ve been saying for many months that Aguayo has 2 problems:
1) Lack of mental toughness. He’s never had any competition in his life, so he doesn’t even know what mental toughness is.
2) Horribly inconsistent technique.
The former causes the latter. Competition—and the mental toughness it breeds—requires a kicker nail down technique or that technique will never be consistent. And I have never seen an NFL kicker with poorer, less consistent technique than Aguayo.
There are few positions more important, and requiring near-perfect consistency, than a kicker and punter. We’ve seen what a difference a punter makes with Anger. His form is flawless. When he takes the field you just know he’ll nail a punt. But when Aguayo takes the field, he has the look of fear, the look of defeat. Why? He doesn’t know what will happen when he swings his leg.
Production is all that matters in the NFL, and the guy was the worst in the NFL in 2016. Aguayo can show off his FSU scrapbook, and if he has 50 cents, he can buy a cup of “joe.”
My money is on Folk. He would be a huge upgrade from the Aguayo experiment.
Frankly, getting cut might do the guy well. Then if he got picked up, he’d HAVE to compete every day for a job. That’s how an athlete builds mental toughness.
May 18th, 2017 at 9:58 am
Maybe we can trade aguayo to the jets for a halfway decent DB or pass rusher. HE can help them tank and we can get the decent roster player we should have landed wih one of those 2 mid round picks we traded up with
May 18th, 2017 at 10:50 am
TripleCow
You are correct about next year being huge for QB’s after this year’s lean pickings.
Walter has QB’s going first second with 3 of the top 5 picks projected to be QB’s.
I also think you’re correct TC about the Jets thinking…if not out and out tanking they are certainly in clean house and rebuild it mode. But I agree with you…tanking is probably part of their mind set.
May 18th, 2017 at 11:09 am
Everybody has a rookie figured already……. One season and everyone knows aguayo history? Nick folk came in for competition and the best man will win. Just because the media thinks he’s a goner showed they know nothing. If folk was so much if a lock to make this roster why go through training with to kickers? Is it to save folks leg for the season hahahaha. It’s competition and I’ll root for the young guy over the old dude with the ONE good season Joe keeps referring to which makes it stupid to compare the two players since one of the only played one season
May 18th, 2017 at 11:14 am
Triple Cow – Thanks for the insight. I was wondering why an established kicker was available to the Bucs. I first thought it might be salary cap issues until your revelation. Thank god I’m not a Jets fan. Tanking – Ugh ! Though I am a part time Bear Fan after the Bucs which is probably the same. McCaskey & the Bears are too stupid to tank. They’re just crappy all the time and think they’re doing just fine. Halas is rolling in his grave. Alas, woe is me.
May 18th, 2017 at 11:43 am
I give Aguayo sycophants credit for their Great Loyalty in the face of production facts.
May 18th, 2017 at 12:07 pm
Folk is a good player… It’s good to hear some of the superlatives as well. If Folk finishes the preseason healthy, he will be the kicker. Kickers can easily go past the age of 40… and if Folk is really an avid iron pusher, he can definitely make it to 40 with no drop off. That would be nine years of successful field goal kicking…. which is likely nine more years than Aguayo will ever offer anyone.
May 18th, 2017 at 12:12 pm
Stpetebucsfan Says:
May 18th, 2017 at 7:39 am
I was hopeful Aguayo was another Latin kicker from a soccer tradition who had great length and give us the chance to perhaps steal a game here or there with a 50+ kick….a “generational” kicker. Last year he wasn’;t even an adequate much less generational kicker. He can improve his % but my biggest disappointment was in his leg strength which did not really impress me.
————-
I wouldn’t have minded the inconsistency if he had a fantastic leg. Janikowski, the lefty that kicked for the Eagles for a while (somebody referred to him as the Babe Ruth of kickers… was that David Akers?), even the guy that got cut after the Titans game in 2015… he had a helluva leg… but Aguayo? It just didn’t see or hear the big gun going off when he hit the ball. What’s the upside there? He reminds me a bit of former Cardinal kicker, John Lee of UCLA. Sports Illustrated even put him on the front cover and wrote a story about him being the Rock N Roll Kicker. I’m not sure he ever kicked in the NFL but he was drafted extremely high and when he got to the league people quickly found out that he didn’t have a decent leg.
May 18th, 2017 at 12:14 pm
What’s especially funny regarding the comparison of Aguayo to John Lee. Lee was called the Rock N Roll Kicker while Aguayo looks like a bad Spanish version of the King of Rock N Roll, Elvis Presley. The dude shouldn’t have been drafted just due to his ridiculous hair and lamb chop sideburns like the King.
May 18th, 2017 at 1:39 pm
Sounds like the bridge player came a year late. Don’t think aguayo is gone based on the investment and only one season of poor production. The competition and another year under his belt will only help Roberto, plus picking some habits from Nick couldn’t hurt. Either way, follow the Licht!
May 18th, 2017 at 1:51 pm
Just listened to ira podcast and one of the joes said if Roberto and Folk make/miss the same amount of kicks in camp you have to go w the older vet. I’m not seeing the logic there. I think everyone understands win now, but bury the kid who was best kicker in college history because his first year was shaky seems pretty harsh. NFL business is a harsh one I suppose, hoping Roberto turns heads this year…
May 18th, 2017 at 2:34 pm
…just keep in mind this new kicker we have was a …..New York Jet. If he was a kicker with a contending team, okay, but he was a Jet.
May 18th, 2017 at 5:06 pm
“Folk you meng, Alberto Aguayo was overheard saying, while plucking his eyebrows at The Palace.
You know they don’t speak Spanish Roberto!
May 18th, 2017 at 5:35 pm
I do wish Roberto well.
I would really like this reach of a high pick work out, but if not, Licht has the stones to say goodbye.
Or IR I guess.