6 winners (and 4 losers) for Buccaneers in preseason win over Jets
By Josh Hill
Loser: Rodrigo Blankenship
Congrats to Chase McLaughlin on winning the Buccaneers kicking competition.
The Bucs got a look at both kickers on Saturday night, but only one of them turned in a good performance. McLaughlin hit his only field goal attempt of the night, while Rodrigo Blankenship went 1-for-3 including a miss from 55-yards.
That’s exactly the opposite of what the Bucs are looking for.
Not only did Blankenship miss most of his field goals, but he missed a chance to potentially negate his struggles by nailing a big kick. That’s one thing the team has been searching for after moving on from Ryan Succop, and was something that worked against their former kicker despite his reliability on shorter kicks.
Had Blankenship made that big kick there might be an argument to continue the kicking competition. As it stands after Week 2, though, it’s hard to see the Bucs hanging onto him when McLaughlin appears to be the guy they should take into the season.
It’s a real bummer, too, as the signing of Blankenship after his tryout at minicamp could have been the start of a cool redemption story. Instead, he’ll likely be out of a job for the third time in a year.
Ironically it’ll be the second time that McLaughlin beats out Blankenship for a job, as he replaced him a year ago in Indianapolis.