Buccaneers: Have confidence in Pat Murray

With the change at kicker, Buccaneers fans should finally have a little bit of confidence in the kicking game.

Look, I was never an anti Nick Folk or anti Roberto Aguayo person. I never understood those that rooted against members of a team they cheer for. It’s counterproductive. You’re essentially rooting for your team to fail. That said, when I saw all the issues the Buccaneers were having at kicker, I had no reservations expressing my concern and my desire for them to upgrade.

Monday, they did.

Patrick Murray was a solid kicker for the Bucs in 2014. He finished with an 83.3% completion percentage and was only ousted because of an injury. Since then, the stats are pretty alarming…

Murray missed merely four kicks while in Tampa, and two of them were over 40 yards, as you can see from Auman’s tweet. However, one of those two misses was from over 50 yards, where he went 5-for-6.

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Most importantly for Buccaneers fans, Murray was 7-for-8 from 30-39 yards which of course is where the new extra point will be from. When Murray was 31-for-31 on extra points in his first stint with the Bucs, it was the old extra point spot so the numbers may not stay at 100%. We can hope, but every kicker seems to miss a few here and there nowadays.

At the end of the day, there appears to be a kicker the Buccaneers can rely on, whether it’s a point after or a 50-plus yard attempt. Murray may finally provide the stability Jason Licht has been searching for since arriving in Tampa Bay.

There are other issues to be worked out, but for the time being, the Bucs are set at kicker. Whether or not they still believe Cairo Santos is the true, long term answer is yet to be seen as he’s still injured and wouldn’t be available for a few more game.

Next: Second Quarter Predictions For Bucs

Though, I believe Pat Murray will give them reason to believe they already have their guy.