As though the Tampa Bay Buccaneers don’t already have enough to worry about, a concerning trend started to emerge in Week 1’s win over the Falcons.
The usually reliable Chase McLaughlin suddenly forgot how to kick.
McLaughlin got a nice contract extension last March at a time when the Bucs were still trying to be careful about how much money they spent. It was an investment in McLaughlin — and a reward — for finally fixing a nagging kicking problem Tampa Bay was trying to deal with.
He responded to that new contract, one worth $12.5 million, by hitting 30 of 32 field-goal tries nailing and 54 of 56 extra-point attempts. That’s what makes his missed kicks on Sunday so alarming, because it’s part of the Buccaneers strategy that we didn’t think we needed to worry about.
It now appears that might not be the case, and it’s giving fans a bit of PTSD after the kicking woes last season.
Buccaneers suddenly have to worry about kicking…again
While McLauhglin was having a nearly flawless season, the other part of the kicking game was struggling. This time last year punter Jake Camarda was benched amid uncharacteristic struggles, and was eventually released a few weeks into the season.
It was an unceremonious end to his tenure, and one that happened suddenly. Tampa Bay tried to triage the situation with Trenton Gil and Jack Browning but couldn’t find the right answer. The result was missed opportunities to flip the field like we saw with Camarda when he was on his game and it put added stress on an already tenuous situation with a struggling defense.
Let’s not overreact to one game, but nobody can be blamed for nervously looking around after McLaughlin’s rough start to the season. It was only two missed kicks but he left four points on the field in a game the Bucs barely won by three, which makes it all the more troubling.
The Bucs have enough to worry about with depth issues in the secondary and injuries already starting to eat into the roster. Kicking has been a something we’ve all been able to put out of mind, which is why McLaughlin needs to come back strong in Week 2 down in Houston in order to calm justifiably rising anxiety about how this season will go.
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