Tampa Bay should re-sign Ryan Succop while they have the chance

Let’s take a look at Roberto Aguayo, for starters. The Florida State University kicker had a stellar pedigree. In three years at FSU, he knocked down 69-of-78 field goal attempts and was no less than perfect on 198 extra points. Heck, he even won the Lou Groza Award in 2013.

Let that sink in a bit, in three years kicking extra points for the ‘Noles Aguayo never missed! Wouldn’t that make you want to take a chance? Knowing the need, and seeing such a bright red apple in waiting, how could a person resist? Of course Jameis Winston probably helped. Not all early kicker picks are bad picks. And, especially not from FSU. It hasn’t been that long, well okay maybe it has been that long since Al Davis noticed a Seminoles placekicker who seemed to be hitting 65 yarders during practice.

Do you know his name? Come on, bet you can guess? Here’s a hint, he’s the guy that beat out Martin (Automatica) Gramatica for the starting spot at FSU.

Well, just in case you didn’t know, his name is Sebastian Janikowski. So, when was he drafted? Al and his Raiders lavished a No 17 pick on the kicker in the 2000 draft. So, Jason knew it could be done and done successfully. After all, Janikowski lasted 19 years and had basically impeccable seasons.

So, management tries the same methodology on a different suspect, Matt Gay. Gay was another kicker with huge accolades, like Aguayo, Gay also won the Lou Groza Award, in 2017.
Matt Matt, he’s our man, if he can’t do it well, it was starting to look like nobody can. For starters, no pun intended, the Bucs went through Bryan Anger, Nick Folk, Cairo Santos, Chandler Catanzaro, and Bradley Pinion before settling on Gay.
But in the end, management seemed to be wrong, again.