Buccaneers need to make a change with established veteran

The Buccaneers can thank Ryan Succop for the positive change he has made in their kicking room, but it might be time to move on.

The kicking battle is going to be one of the hardest fights to predict as Buccaneers training camp chugs along.

Ryan Succop is the established veteran. A Super Bowl ring, a long career of above-average to high success, and a contract beyond this season are the selling points for the Bucs maintaining the status quo at an underrated position.

However, maintaining the status quo with kickers can be a tricky prospect. Kickers get in their own heads. They go on hot streaks, but they also go on very cold streaks. Kicker success can be very difficult to predict based on the variability of the position on a year-to-year basis outside of a handful of guys, and always keeping an open competition is the best way to avoid this.

In the spirit of this notion, the Buccaneers have kept Jose Borregales for a a little while now, and 2022 could finally be his year.

The competition in camp between these two has been extremely close. Succop has been a bit more accurate so far, but Borregales has generally been better from distance.

When you take the whole sample size into account, the two kickers are nearly identical in their performances in camp, and the biggest difference comes down to age and price.

Borregales is younger and cheaper. These two facts alone could cause the Bucs to overlook some missed kicks if the longterm gain is higher with Borregales.

Game reps in the preseason are likely going to be make or break here. Those games can’t get here soon enough as we try to see what this finalized roster will actually look like.

With that being said, it feels like the tide is starting to turn in the younger kickers’ favor.

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