Buccaneers: Roberto Aguayo proves that reality must follow fantasy
The Buccaneers release of Roberto Aguayo confirms the fact that general managers should follow the lead of fantasy owners.
Buccaneers fans far and wide are thrilled today. Why? The Roberto Aguayo experiment is over. For anyone who missed it, the Bucs released the second round kicker on Saturday, essentially giving the job to challenger Nick Folk. Or they could sign another kicker to compete, but for the time being the job is Folk’s. Either way, they have moved on from Aguayo. Fans, you won’t need to go into cardiac arrest every time the kicker walks on the field anymore.
We all know the story by now. Jason Licht made a drastic move to select Aguayo last year. Licht is an aggressive man. When he sees a guy he wants he does everything he has to in order to get that guy. The move to select a kicker was unsual, but so was Aguayo’s success in college. The success did not continue and it’s over.
What have we learned here? We have learned that general managers should follow the advice of fantasy owners.
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I know you are out there. Most, if not all of the readers of this article play fantasy football. We all think we can put together the best team and try to prove it every football season. It practically is a national pastime.
For those of you that draft a new team every year, I have a question. What position do you never draft early? Kicker, am I right? You don’t even think about the position to the middle of the draft and don’t make the selection until the last quarter of the draft, typically. They don’t make a huge difference in fantasy football.
The numbers bear it out. Let’s look at Average Draft Position or “ADP”, per Fantasy Football Calculator. Take Justin Tucker, the player many think is the best fantasy football kicker. In standard 12 team formats, his ADP is 12.12. For anyone who doesn’t know, that means round 12, pick 12. Stephen Gostkowski? 13.03. The rest of the league’s kickers go further back in the draft. You can get a kicker late in the draft that does the job.
It’s the same in the NFL. There is no reason to trade up and draft a kicker that high. That is why it is never done. When the Jets did it for Mike Nugent, he at least stuck with the team for four years, but it’s not as if he was Morten Andersen. He did the job. That can be done late in the draft, through undrafted free agents, or veteran free agents. The job can be done without giving up major draft capital.
Next: Reactions to Buccaneers vs Bengals
Just like we do in fantasy football. See guys and girls? Us fantasy owners do know a thing or two after all.